Recieved July 8, 2005

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

Dear Mr. Mihevc:

As Minister of International Cooperation, I am pleased to respond to your letter to the Prime Minister, concerning Canada's international assistance efforts.

Financial taxes are complex matters, especially when they are meant to generate additional revenues for development and not, like past proposals such as the Tobin tax, to reduce market volatility. This is why my colleague, the Honourable Ralph E. Goodale, Minister of Finance, and I requested, at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings last October, that their staff conduct technical studies on the potential impact of various innovative financing proposals.

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March 7, 2005

Washington DC,
December 1st 2003

Dear UN delegations active in the Second Committee;

We, the undersigned NGOs, are encouraged that the UN General Assembly Second Committee is taking the UN Financing for Development (FFD) process seriously by giving careful consideration to proposals made at the High Level Dialogue of the General Assembly (past October 29-30th, New York).

The Financing for Development conference meant an unprecedented effort to build a consensus among a broad set of stakeholders, including international organizations, civil society and the private sector, on means for financing the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals. However, as some delegations noted during the High Level Dialogue, the Monterrey Consensus was never a finished product, but rather a point of departure. In fact, the credibility of the Financing for Development follow up process hinges upon its ability to build on the broad language of the Monterrey consensus to provide concrete proposals that effectively address the key issues that hinder the availability of resources for development in our time.

“Addressing Unsustainable and Illegitimate Debt—Strategic Options for Civil Society”

International financial institutions need injection of democracy
Coalition calls on Canadian government to take up UNDP recommendations at the Annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF governors
For immediate release

All circus, no substance. Canada's performance in Monterrey to set stage for Kananaskis.
 
March 14, 2002 – Next Monday, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, will attend the UN Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) in Monterrey, Mexico. Today Canadian non-governmental organizations release a letter to the Prime Minister strongly critical of Canada’s role in the FfD process and concerned about implications for the G8 in Kananaskis.

The UN Multilateral Environmental Agreement /Financial Mechanism

"Taxing Currency Transactions – From Feasibility to Implementation"
Pam Foster

“A Global Agreement towards a United World”, June 1 – 3, 2001, Genoa, Italy

Experience with Currency Transactions (Tobin) Taxes – Debunking the Myths and Building Political Support

by Robin Round, Policy Analyst

The world of finance has become a global gambling casino, where investors seeking quick profits bet huge sums around the clock. Big banks and investment firms are the players, profiting from the minute-to-minute, hourly or daily fluctuations in prices on bond and currency markets around the world. These players are not investing in the `real economy', which generates jobs and produces goods and services, they are investing in the ‘paper economy’ in which money becomes a commodity rather than a means of exchange.

HIPC Initiative will not serve the world’s poorest with the IMF in control
28 Sept. 1999
The Halifax Initiative coalition of development, labour, human rights and environment organizations is deeply concerned that debt relief is still inappropriately conditioned on compliance with IMF-directed programs. The debt crisis continues to be used as a lever to force open economies, an inexcusable manipulation of poverty and human tragedy. The heart of the problem is that final control of the program remains in the hands of an unreformed IMF.