Canada under fire over foreign aid spending

DUBLIN - Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is fond of announcing his country is the only member of the Group of Eight nations to run a budget surplus and also of saying much more must be done to end African poverty.

He is much less happy when people ask why a rich country like Canada isn't spending much more on foreign aid.

Martin, due to take part in a G8 summit in the Scottish resort of Gleneagles this week, is under fire from rock stars, legislators and activists who say Ottawa must boost overseas aid to 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product from 0.26 per cent.

Martin says this would be expensive and dismisses demands he commit Canada to meeting the 0.7 per cent target by 2015. Instead, he condemns what he describes as leaders who make empty spending commitments because it looks good.

"What in fact they're doing is that they're giving into short-term political pressure, get their pictures in the paper, make an announcement, go home, go home to favourable headlines and then they forget about it. Well, I'm not going to do that," he said.

"Rather than trying to set grand and glorious targets a long way out, my own view is that you should set achievable targets in the short term that people can measure you by, especially if you don't achieve them." No G8 country is close to spending 0.7 per cent of its GDP on foreign aid. Canada, which has committed to doubling its foreign aid budget to Africa by 2008, pays out a total of around C$3 ($3.60) billion a year on international aid.

But Martin's sense of caution is out of step with domestic popular opinion which feels Canada must do more. Members of Parliament - including legislators from the ruling Liberals - voted unanimously in late June to back a motion calling for a massive increase in foreign aid.

What makes the criticism all the more hard to bear for Martin is that not so long ago, his pronouncements about the need to do more for Africa made him the darling of Irish rock star activists such as Bono and Bob Geldof.

How times have changed. Last month Geldof told Martin to "just stay at home" and not bother coming to Gleneagles unless he was prepared to boost foreign aid, pointing out that the 0.7 per cent target had initially been outlined 35 years ago by former Canadian prime minister Lester Pearson.

"(The refusal to boost aid) says that the poorest, the most weak, the mute, the powerless, the beaten down, the trod upon, the hungry, the sick and the dispossessed are not yet of the highest priority to this government," Geldof told the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper.

Stinging words like these make it all the easier for foes to take swipes at Martin's minority Liberal government.

"Mr. Martin, it's time to stop the phoney photo-ops with rockers; it's time to get down to business on foreign aid," Canada's opposition Conservatives said in a statement.

As pressure mounts on Martin, who is visiting Ireland ahead of the G8 summit, some observers have speculated that he will use the Gleneagles meeting to commit Canada to a date for meeting the 0.7 per cent target.

No chance, say the prime minister's aides.

"Canada will not be presenting a set of announcements. There won't be a package," one of Martin's officials said on Monday.

- REUTERS