Finance Canada

Event: Parliamentary roundtables on the G8/G20 Agendas - April 20, 26 and 27, 2010

Parliamentary Roundtables on the G8/G20 Agendas

2010 is an important and unique moment for Parliamentarians to engage with Canadians on some of the most important global issues facing our planet and our future.  On June 25th, 2010, Canada will play host to leaders from the Group of Eight countries in Muskoka, followed by a meeting of G20 leaders in Toronto on June 26-27.

To date, there has been little discussion among parliamentarians about the themes leading up to the 2010 summits, and Canadian civil society is looking to engage members from all parties in a discussion around some of the issues highlighted in our civil society platform, An Agenda for Global Development: G8/G20 Civil Society Coalition Platform, endorsed by over 60 organizations across the country.  The platform discusses specific, measurable, realistic recommendations to put poverty eradication, economic recovery for all and environmental justice at the centre of the international agenda.

To facilitate the conversation, Canadian civil society is organizing three parliamentary roundtables to discuss party perspectives on climate change, the financial crisis and the millennium development goals (MDGs). The Roundtables will occur as the G20 Finance Ministers meet in Washington, as G8 Development Ministers meet in Halifax and as Canada hosts the Africa Partnership Forum in Toronto.

Roundtable 1: Climate change
When:     Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 - 9:00 am –11:00 am
Where:    Room 2-2, Booth Building, 165 Sparks Street, Ottawa

Roundtable 2: Global financial crisis
When:     Monday, April 26th, 2010 - 5:00 pm –7:00 pm
Where:    Room 2-2, Booth Building, 165 Sparks Street, Ottawa

Roundtable 3: Millennium Development Goals
When:     Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 - 9:00am –11:00am
Where:    Room 2-2, Booth Building, 165 Sparks Street, Ottawa

ROUNDTABLE DETAILS

Canadian G8 G20 Civil Society Platform

Roundtable Agendas

Moderator, MP and Expert Bios 

Podcasts

Press Responses: Op Ed - The Robin Hood Tax – Its Aim is True

In "Alternatives", April 1, 2010
http://www.alterinter.org/article3457.html?lang=en

T-A-X. Such a simple three letter word, and yet it elicits responses from people out of all proportion to its size. Perhaps it isn’t surprising. Taxes are scary.

But let’s not forget, as much as you may hate them, without them, we wouldn’t have public health care, education, infrastructure, police and ambulances, government, politicians…(OK, maybe scratch that one). You get the idea. Boring and controversial as they are, taxes are essential.

Monthly Issue Update - March 31, 2010

The corporate responsibilty to respect human rights
Detractors of Private Member’s Bill C-300 (IU February 2009) draw attention to the bill’s treatment of human rights. The bill establishes guidelines for Canadian extractive companies that operate overseas. These guidelines must be met by companies that receive support from Export Development Canada, the Canadian Pension Plan and Canadian embassies. The guidelines are to include provisions based on Canada's international human rights obligations.

Monthly Issue Update - February 28, 2010

Government accountability bill returns to the House
On March 3, the Governor General will open a new session of Parliament, ending the recess created when the Harper government prorogued the previous session in December. All legislation that was under consideration at that time was extinguished, with the exception of private members’ bills, which return to the House, unscathed. These bills begin anew at whichever stage of the legislative process they had reached before the plug was pulled on Parliament.

Press Responses: February 3, 2010

Three ways to pay for aid commitments
EMBASSY – Canada’s Foreign Policy Newspaper

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Stephen Harper’s announcement that child and maternal health will be the signature theme of June’s G8 meeting is certainly timely.

Every day 1,400 women die of pregnancy-related causes.  Every day 24,000 children under the age of five die of what are largely preventable causes. Progress on improving child and maternal health is the furthest off-track of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) UN member states committed to in 2000. This focus gives MDGs four and five, on child and maternal health, the push they need ahead of September’s United Nations High Level Meeting and ten year review of the MDGs.

But funding the initiative comes during difficult days – a global crisis and a budget deficit. Resources are tight.

Policy Paper: What’s missing in the response to the global financial crisis? - January 2010

Rethinking the international financial system during a time of crisis

Introduction
On October 19 and 20, 2009, the Halifax Initiative held a conference, co-hosted by The North South Institute, the University of Ottawa and the School of International Development and Global Studies (SIDGS), entitled "What’s Missing in the Response to the Global Financial Crisis?" The meeting brought together experts from a range of backgrounds to analyze the challenges facing the global economy, discuss the ways in which the international community has responded to the current financial crisis, and identify shortcomings in these responses.

Letter to Ministers Flaherty and Cannon re debt cancellation for Haiti - February 1, 2010

Hon. James Flaherty 
Minister of Finance
Department of Finance Canada
140 O’Connor Street 
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0G5
Hon. Lawrence Cannon
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
125 Sussex Drive    
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0G2

1st February 2010

Ref: Immediate debt cancellation for Haiti

Dear Ministers Flaherty and Cannon,

We are writing to commend the government’s efforts to date to mobilise emergency assistance for disaster relief in Haiti and for speaking to the urgency and importance of debt cancellation for the country. The call to cancel Haiti’s remaining multilateral debt, including last week’s highly concessional $102 million loan from the IMF, benefits from a strong Canadian voice. We urge you to keep demonstrating such leadership in the government’s interventions at the Bretton Woods Institutions, and at Haiti’s largest multilateral creditor, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Monthly Issue Update - January 31, 2010

CSOs push for Common Approaches revamp
Members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are currently reviewing a 2007 Council Recommendation regarding export credit agency (ECA) operations. The Recommendation on Common Approaches on the Environment and Officially Supported Export Credits (Common Approaches) is a “gentlemen’s agreement” that seeks to establish a level playing field regarding ECA environmental practice. CSOs argue that the Recommendation’s impact is undermined by the lack of effective accountability mechanisms to ensure consistent and effective application by member governments.

Gerry Barr

Close and summing up

Gerry Barr, President-CEO, Canadian Council for International Co-operation
and Chair, Make Poverty History Canada

Q&A Session

Perspectives on proposals for change - Rethinking the global financial system

Questions and answers and discussion

Government of Canada: 

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