December 22, 2008

The Honourable James Flaherty
Minister of Finance
Department of Finance Canada
140 O’Connor Street
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0G5

Dear Minister Flaherty:

Re: 2008 consultation with respect to the “Official Development Assistance Accountability Act”

February 28, 2005

Indigenous Peoples Coordinator
Mailstop MC5-523
World Bank
1818 H Street
NW Washington DC 20433 USA
Email: indigenouspeoples@worldbank.org

RE: Comments on Revised Draft Operational Policy on Indigenous Peoples (Revised Draft OP 4.10)

Dear Indigenous Peoples Coordinator,

Please find below our comments on the Draft Operational Policy on Indigenous Peoples (Revised Draft OP 4.10).

We the undersigned Canadian organizations and representatives are writing to highlight the need for the World Bank to strengthen its draft OP 4.10 in order to ensure that the policy sufficiently meets international standards and guarantees on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In our opinion, for the operational policy to be seen to be credible and effective it must contain mandatory provisions that:

The World Bank, the IMF and FTAA
Halifax Initiative Statement on the FTAA

The proposed FTAA is nothing new for the Americas. It is another step in the forced:

• implementation of trade and investment liberalization,
• privatization of industry, agriculture and services,
• introduction of labour market "flexibility" (removal or enforced absence of labour standards),
• reduction in public sector expenditures in areas such as health, education and economic development maintenance of high interest rates to attract foreign investors.

28-29 November, Oslo

In 2005 donor governments committed to significant increases in the volume and quality of development aid. A large amount of this is likely to be delivered by the World Bank and the IMF, which are also very influential in the spending allocations of other agencies. However, economic policy conditionality imposed by the World Bank and the IMF on developing countries has harmed development in some of the poorest countries and remains a key challenge if aid effectiveness is to be taken seriously.

We welcome the Norwegian government’s decision to convene a Conference on Economic Policy Conditionality. It provides a unique opportunity to promote vitally important reform to help development in the poorest countries of the world.

We call on our governments to strongly support the process and use this opportunity to formulate positions to end tying much-needed aid and debt relief to harmful economic policy conditions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Submission

Appendix A

• Access to Information Legislation
• Summary of Access to Information Laws

Appendix B

• Comparative Analysis of Public Lending Agencies' Disclosure Regimes

Appendix C

• Disclosure Policies of Publicly Owned Lending and Government Agencies

In 1999, Amnesty International raised alarms about the killing of four indigenous people protesting a hydroelectric dam in Colombia that has devastated their food source and, if completed, would flood most of their land.

In 1995, a gold mine in Guyana spilt 3.2 billion litres of cyanide and heavy metal effluent into the country’s main waterway, endangering the health of 23,000 people and killing thousands of fish.

Introduction

The undersigned civil society organizations have prepared this joint submission to provide an overview of many of our concerns related to IFC’s Policy on Social and Environmental Sustainability, the Performance Standards, related guidance documents, and the Disclosure Policy. We believe these concerns should be explored and addressed further through IFC’s current consultation and review process.

February 17, 2011

The Honourable James Flaherty
Minister of Finance
Department of Finance Canada
140 O’Connor Street
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0G5

Dear Minister Flaherty:

Re: 2010-11 consultation with respect to the “Official Development Assistance Accountability Act”

February 17, 2011

The Honourable James Flaherty
Minister of Finance
Department of Finance Canada
140 O’Connor Street
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0G5

Dear Minister Flaherty:

Re: 2010-11 consultation with respect to the “Official Development Assistance Accountability Act”

Le 17 février 2011,

L’Honorable James Flaherty
Ministre des Finances
Ministère des Finances Canada
140, O’Connor Street
Ottawa, ON  K1A 0G5

Monsieur le Ministre,

Re : consultation 2010-2011 au sujet de la Loi sur la responsabilité en matière d’aide au développement officielle