Canada promises $180M to Haiti over two years

[memphiz]

OTTAWA - The Canadian government says it is going to provide more than $180 million over the next two years to boost reconstruction and development in Haiti.

* INDEPTH: Haiti

Ottawa announced the donation on Sunday, but it will be formally made at a conference in Washington this week.

Haiti's transitional government has developed an assessment (the Interim Co-operation Framework, or ICF) of what it needs, which will be presented to a donor's conference.

Canada's donation is intended to address the needs outlined by the transitional government.

The Canadian contribution includes:

* Nearly $147 million to support the ICF;
* About $33 million for policing.

"Canada has been there in the past for Haiti and we will continue to be there in the years to come," Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said in a statement.

The money will come from the Canadian International Development Agency.

* FROM JULY 7, 2004: Canada sends 100 police to Haiti

Canada has 500 soldiers in Haiti as part of a UN stabilization force put in place after president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted on Feb. 29. Those soldiers are coming home at the end of August, but 100 police officers will be sent to maintain order and train Haitian police.

Since February, Canada has committed nearly $16 million to Haiti, mostly through international organizations like the United Nations and Organization of American States.

Assistance totalled nearly $24 million in 2002-2003
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/maps/haiti.jpg

[b.scheller]

The money will come from the Canadian International Development Agency.

Bull****, it comes from my pocket and yours...

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How much in reality can dumping money into a relatively poor economic state really help?

Sure, you could use the idea of the Martial Plan (after the second world war) but then the victim nations had established an economy before the war. The money that the USA gave, helped the already created infrastructure just prop up itself, back to production. Haiti, is in a poor economic state, no real requesite of how to run things properly. Perhaps a bigger and better gift that could be given by Canada would be to train the politico's and the future generation the skills they need to lead their small nation to a relative sucess. Anyway dumping money in this manner will only help create more corruption, of course thats not a unknown definition to the Liberals...