Foreign Affairs and International Development

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development met to study the main estimates 2026-27 and supplementary estimates (A) for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand appeared alongside officials Shirley Carruthers, Cam Do, and David Hutchison.

Minister Anand testified that Global Affairs Canada requested $7.2 billion in budgetary spending, including $6.8 billion in voted expenditures and $400 million in statutory expenditures, with supplementary estimates adding $23.9 million. She outlined the government’s “principled pragmatism” foreign policy, emphasizing trade diversification through over 20 new economic and security partnerships, a goal to double non-U.S. trade, and the introduction of Bill C-35 to ban imports made with forced labour. She also highlighted humanitarian commitments of over $450 million to Haiti, $120 million to Sudan, and $37.7 million to Lebanon, and defended the government’s due diligence processes for aid delivery.

Shirley Carruthers, Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer, explained that the $2.7 billion reduction in international development assistance over five years, part of a comprehensive expenditure review, would bring the budget back to pre-COVID levels, with the largest cuts in global health programming. She noted that existing projects would not be cut but would not be renewed upon expiry, and that the department would need to focus development assistance in fewer countries. She also described a modernization of consular services through a new digital service window using AI for routine transactions, freeing resources for complex cases.

Cam Do, Director General of the Development Finance Bureau, stated that the $5.3 billion climate finance commitment was well received by Canadian and international NGOs, and that FinDev Canada received an additional $2 billion recapitalization and $732 million for a concessional facility, with a target to mobilize $3 in private capital for every dollar of public investment. He noted that Canada is maintaining its climate finance level while the United Kingdom and France have significantly reduced theirs.

David Hutchison, Director General of the Trade Strategy Bureau, declined to comment on the preparation of Bill C-35 or the list of goods that might be subject to forced labour prohibitions, stating that enforcement rests with the CBSA and that he had no knowledge of specific products in the Canadian market linked to forced labour. He also declined to share confidential advice the department provided to the minister regarding the abolition of the Canadian ombudsperson for responsible enterprise.

The committee then proceeded to clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-219, a private member’s bill. The committee adopted several government amendments, including renaming the short title to the “Global Sanctions and Special Economic Measures Act (Sergei Magnitsky Law No. 2)” and the long title to “An Act to amend the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act, the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (Sergei Magnitsky Law) and the Special Economic Measures Act,” as well as amendments to the preamble. Conservative MP Michael Chong thanked members for their co-operative approach on the bill. He then gave notice of a motion recommending that the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture request the CRTC to hold a hearing on removing several Chinese state-controlled television channels from the list of authorized non-Canadian programming services, after Liberal MP Robert Oliphant indicated his caucus required 48 hours’ notice before considering it.