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Join the Call for Debt Cancellation NOW!

Five years ago, as part of the worldwide Jubilee debt campaign, 640,000 Canadians signed a petition calling for the cancellation of low-income countries' foreign debts.

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PDF with Printable Letter

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MPs, CSOs demand government response to Consensus Report on Extractives
Earlier editions of this publication reported on the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Industry in Developing Countries (See IU Vol. I No 10; Vol. II Nos 6, 9, 11; Vol. III, Nos 3 and 6). The cross-country consultation process was a constructive, multi-stakeholder dialogue on the overseas operations of Canadian oil, gas and mining companies. Remarkably, it culminated with the release of a consensus-based action plan for the Canadian government to improve the accountability of Canadian extractive companies overseas. The plan, which is outlined in the Advisory Group Final Report, was endorsed by participating representatives from industry, civil society and academia. That was in March. Eight months later, there is still no response from the federal government.

G8 Debt Proposal gains support at World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have advanced a plan for cancelling debts owed by 18 low-income countries, at their September 23-25, 2005 annual meetings. The plan, first proposed by the Group of 7 (G7) Finance Ministers last June and then ratified by G8 (G7 plus Russia) heads of government at their July Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, applies only to those countries that have graduated from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative (See Issue Updates July and August 2005, respectively, for more). It would cover 100 % of their debts owed to the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), the IMF and the African Development Bank's African Development Fund (AfDF).

January 3, 2006

Mr. John Mihevc
Chair
Halifax Initiative Coalition
Suite 104, 153 Chapel Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 1H5

Dear Mr. Mihevc:

Thank you for your letter of September 12, 2005 regarding Canada's contributions to the global fight against poverty. I regret the delay of my reply.

The United Nations Millennium +5 Summit and the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were extremely important opportunities to secure commitments to advance international efforts toward poverty alleviation. Canada was very active in the lead-up to these events and Canadian officials worked hard to ensure that there was no erosion of existing international commitments in the United Nations Summit Outcome document. In this, I believe, we were largely successful.