OTTAWA—Canada needs to show the world it is a more generous aid donor if it wants to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council, says the international development minister.
But Marie-Claude Bibeau says that doesn’t mean committing Canada to reaching the UN’s development spending goal of 0.7 percent of gross national income.
“I think that the 0.7 is too ambitious as a target,” Bibeau said. “Of course we want to do more, we want to do better.”
The federal budget saw the end of a five-year freeze on development spending with the government making a two-year, $256-million commitment, a figure Bibeau suggested she'd like to increase in the future.
The budget also tasked Bibeau with conducting a review of Canada’s approach to foreign aid and the minister said she will report by autumn.
Bibeau said she would be presenting a five-year aid spending plan to cabinet, but added: “I am not ready yet to fix a target in percentage terms.”
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged the government to come up with a plan to reach the 0.7 target as it announced a run for the Security Council for 2021.
