Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

applegrove

(118,021 posts)
Tue Oct 1, 2019, 07:44 PM Oct 2019

Andrew Scheer's claim about foreign aid deemed false

Andrew Scheer's claim about foreign aid deemed false

Official figures don't support idea that $2.2 billion a year is going to rich or undeserving nations

Jonathon Gatehouse - CBC News

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5305045?__twitter_impression=true

"SNIP.....

The claim: "The Trudeau government today sends $2.2 billion of so-called foreign aid to middle- and upper-income countries...Worse still, some of that money is shoveled to repressive regimes that are adversarial, if not outright hostile, to Canadian interests and values."

-- Conservative leader Andrew Scheer announcing his proposal to slash 25 per cent of Canada's foreign aid budget and redistribute the money to taxpayers at home.

The facts: Ottawa spent a total of $6.098 billion on "international assistance" in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018, according to the latest statistical report from Global Affairs Canada.

.....

It's not clear how the Tories arrived at their $2.2 billion figure. The party has said that they are defining "middle- and upper-income countries" as those with a score of 0.6 and above on the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI). But that's not a benchmark that any other country or international body uses to determine which nations need assistance. And it seems like a rather arbitrary point within the HDI itself — about three-quarters of the way down the list of "medium human development countries."

......SNIP"

Latest Discussions»Region Forums»Canada»Andrew Scheer's claim abo...