OECD calls on Canada to spend more on aid to increase its global “weight”
OTTAWA — A major international report has concluded that the Trudeau government’s lofty rhetoric about being “back” on the world stage needs the added heft of more foreign aid spending.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reached that conclusion in an assessment released Friday by its Development Assistance Committee.
The report is part of the OECD’s rotating five-year review of member countries, and its findings could temper the government’s attempts to lobby for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council in the coming years.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland are both bound for the UN General Assembly later this month, where they will ramp up their campaigning for the two-year seat that would start in 2021.