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Core 1..44 Committee (PRISM::Advent3b2 7.50) House of Commons CANADA Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade FAAE Ï NUMBER 033 Ï 1st SESSION Ï 38th PARLIAMENT EVIDENCE Thursday, April 14, 2005 Chair Mr. Bernard Patry All parliamentary publications are available on the ``Parliamentary Internet Parlementaire´´ at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 1 Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade Thursday, April 14, 2005 Ï (0905) been an international strategist, first with MacKenzie and Company, [Translation] the international strategy consulting firm, and then with Bombardier in the last five years as the president of Bombardier International. The Chair (Mr. Bernard Patry (Pierrefonds—Dollard, Lib.)): I call the meeting to order. [English] About a year and a half or two years ago, around the period that led up to the invasion of Iraq, I basically decided I wanted to shift Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we resume our study of the my attention full time to issues of international public policy, my international policy review. hope being to provide the same kind of strategic rigour and focus to [Translation] international policy issues that I had to international business issues. One key question I had when looking at that was how Canada could Our witness this morning is from the International Development have the biggest, most positive impact on the world. Research Centre. [English] It's a pretty basic question, but a critical one. And in my mind, if you want to find out how you can be better, you need to find out how We have the pleasure of having with us Robert Greenhill, who is a you're doing. And if you want to find out how you're doing, the key visiting senior executive. Mr. Greenhill just finished a book, Making way to do that is to ask. But when I asked other people who had a Difference? External Views on Canada's International Impact. It's spent more time in international policy than me, I found it was not that big, but there are a lot of things to read inside. something that actually hadn't ever been done before. There'd never Also, I just want to point out that we have the pleasure this been a systematic review of how Canada was perceived in terms of morning of having, from the parliamentary study tour with CIDA's impact by international policy elites. ODACE, Official Development Assistance in Central Europe, 15 MPs and senators from the countries of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, So what I decided to do was to apply something called the Delphi Slovenia, and the Czech Republic. Welcome to all our colleagues method, which is, when looking at a very complex issue, getting a from other countries. It's a pleasure for us to have you here this heterogeneous group of experts to provide their independent views morning. on the same question. By understanding where there is similarity in the responses and differences in responses, you can understand how Now we're going to start. We'll hear from Mr. Greenhill. I clear the solution is. understand that you have a presentation to give us first, before we go to questions and answers. Well, when applying this to public policy, what I meant is the Please, Mr. Greenhill. following. I basically tried to identify 40 different actors from around Mr. Robert Greenhill (Visiting Senior Executive, International the world—different actors in terms of geography, so Latin America, Development Research Centre): Thank you, Dr. Patry and Africa, Europe, United States, Asia; and different actors ideologi- honourable members. It's a real pleasure to be here with you today. cally, so on the one hand the socialist Gareth Evans, who was a foreign minister for Australia and is now president of the I understand that most of you just received the documentation International Crisis Group, and Henry Kissinger on the other hand. yesterday, so what I will try to do is provide in 10 or 15 minutes a I also asked people with different areas of expertise—so, Jeffrey brief overview of the findings and then open it up for questions and Sachs, who would have deep experience in international develop- answers. I also hope for comments and suggestions, because what ment, or Richard Haass, who would have a strong understanding of I'm putting forward to you today is actually an interim report, and I international politics—having a heterogeneous perspective to can think of no better group to get feedback from on what further determine whether or not there were some similar views on how research should be done for the final report than this group here Canada was perceived. today. Let me give you a little bit of background. I'm actually an So that was the approach. And it included people like Francisco Albertan by origin, living in Quebec, having spent the necessary few Sagasti, who was a former strategic planner at the World Bank, and years as a rite of passage in Toronto. So I've seen a little bit of Hage Geingob, who was a former SWAPO freedom fighter and the Canada. I've also seen a lot of the world. Over the last 15 years I've first Prime Minister of Namibia, 2 FAAE-33 April 14, 2005 Ï (0910) reconfirmed political independence. This was seen as being [Translation] confirmed in spades by our position on Iraq, which was also seen as important. and François Heisbourg, Director of the Strategic Research Foundation in France. The Observer sketched out a future in which Canada can make a [English] tremendous difference, if we choose to. Interviews describe a world fraught with important challenges, which they see our increasingly So there was a combination of different people. outmoded international institutions as ill-equipped to resolve. I basically asked everybody the same questions: Has Canada had Canada is seen to have a unique geopolitical position that, combined an impact over the last 15 years, since 1989, and if so, where and with the right strategy, could allow us to make a significant why? The reason for 15 years was that's since the fall of the Berlin difference in the future. Wall and the end of the Cold War. So my question was have we made a difference in this post-Cold War period? And by making a These international experts had five sets of specific recommenda- difference, we mean not just that we were there and people were tions, which I'd like to communicate to you today. happy to see us, because we're everywhere, and people are always happy to see us, but did we actually change things because we were involved? Were outputs different because Canada had played an First of all, we need to improve our effectiveness in our important role? contribution to international security. Under this head, there are three areas: developing a stand-alone air mobile brigade that we are The second question was where Canada should and could make a prepared to deploy; assisting in police and indigenous security difference in the future. training; and taking a lead role in post-conflict reconstruction. These One key finding was that the answers that came out were very are areas where security experts from the United States, from consistent. You know, former SWAPO freedom fighters and Henry Europe, as well as leaders from Africa thought Canada could not Kissinger and Gareth Evans may not agree on a lot of things—they only play an important role but in many cases a unique role. As one certainly don't agree on their views of the world—but they actually American said, “Your soldiers with their maple leaf are a lot more agree in large part on their views of Canada: the kind of role we've welcome than our GIs in many of these parts of the world”. played, where we've been successful, where we haven't been successful, where we could make a difference in the future. In large The second area where people strongly and consistently part it is highly congruent across these different people. recommended that Canada retake its leadership position was in our Overall, the findings were, for me as a patriotic Canadian, both role as a leader of international development. I would like to quote: exciting and disappointing—or sobering. “In the '70s and '80s, Canada belonged to the like-minded countries making a difference in development. Canada was truly one of the [Translation] leaders. Canada has totally lost that in the last 15 years.” The findings of our study are sobering and exciting. They are sobering in that they portray a Canada whose international Development experts pointed to two issues: a crisis of funding, performance, and to a certain extent, international reputation, have and an absence of sustained, focused leadership. That is not to say fallen over the last 15 years. In particular, our influence on U.S. that Canada isn't doing good work. Canada is still doing some great foreign policy, our contribution to international security, and our role work in certain areas. In information and communication technol- in development are perceived to have declined significantly. The ogies in Africa and the Middle East, we have had a real impact. In context going forward is seen as even more challenging. Institutions Tanzania, an IDRC and CIDA project has reduced mortality rates in in which Canada played an important role, such as the G8 and target areas by 46%. It's probably the most successful health-care NATO, are seen to be losing influence. Increasingly, active major development intervention in the last 15 years in Africa.
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