Advocates call on Carney to keep his promise to not cut foreign aid in budget

Justin McAuley, communications director at ONE and Gabriel Cassie, parliamentary affairs manager for Results Canada, on the motivation to rally in Ottawa.

OTTAWA -- With Mark Carney’s first ever federal budget just over a week away, international development advocates are calling on the prime minister to keep his pre-election pledge to uphold foreign aid funding.

More than a dozen Canadians, including representatives from non-profits, held a midday rally outside the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Monday, warning that any cuts to Canada’s global assistance efforts could have dire consequences.

“We’re here today specifically to remind the prime minister of what he promised,” said Justin McAuley, communications director at ONE, a global non-profit co-founded by Bono.

Those gathered in front of the PMO came with two key demands. The first, that Carney keeps the commitment he made during the last election to not cut foreign assistance.

And the second, that the government expands its existing $1.2 billion commitment to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; diseases that kill an estimated 2.4 million people every year.

“We’re holding him to that,” McAuley said. “Canada is not an island. We are together with a global community, and we need our government to act like this is an investment opportunity.”

Advocates at the rally framed protecting foreign aid funding as a decision that could also have domestic economic benefits by helping strengthen potential new trading partners, while warning that a failure to step up could compromise Canada’s reputation as a global health, nutrition, and development leader.

“Ultimately, if we see Canada turn its back on the world, like we’ve seen from the United States, like we’ve seen from other countries in the world, this is going to be a tale told in lives lost,” said Gabriel Cassie, parliamentary affairs manager for Results Canada, an independent organization focused on ending extreme poverty.

“It’s going to be told in Canada’s declining influence on world stage,” Cassie said.

According to Global Affairs Canada, the federal government’s overseas development assistance budget – helping fund economic development and welfare in developing countries – was $10.2 billion in 2023-24.

The international assistance envelope is earmarked at $10.6 billion for 2025-26, according to Results Canada.

McAuley said if the funding allocated in next week’s budget is less than $10 billion, “it’s an aid cut.”

What has Carney committed to?

At a campaign stop in Calgary, Alta. on April 9, Carney said: “My government will not cut foreign aid.”

Carney also said at the time that he thinks “this is a time for Canada to lead,” including when it comes being “generous” and “effective in support of those who are most vulnerable around the world.”

Though the Liberal election platform also pledged to eliminate $15 billion a year by 2028 to bring revenues in line with operational spending, and in a key speech last week said that even with “efficiencies,” the government “will have to do less of some of the things we want to do.”

Cassie said that while there have been “some positive conversations with the government,” they’ve received no assurances that next week’s budget will protect international assistance funding.

With the budget being framed by the Liberals as being focused on building Canada up, Stop TB Canada co-chair Petra Heitkamp said there is a fear among international aid groups that funding for issues such as global health development could be on the chopping block.

“But investing in programs overseas will also immediately return by preventing diseases to come back into Canada,” she said.

NDP MP Gord Johns was among those who attended the rally. Speaking to CTV News, he said he’s not confident Carney will keep his foreign aid commitment.

“That’s why we’re here today,” Johns said. “We hear austerity coming from the prime minister. This is a place where they cannot cut.”

‘Other world leaders are retreating’

Those gathered in front of PMO on Monday said the need for Canada to maintain its level of funding has been made more dire due to U.S. President Donald Trump dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“Other world leaders are retreating, and Canada has a chance to step up, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s the right investment to make as well,” McAuley said.

They also sought to make the case that Carney making a clear commitment in the budget would lay the groundwork the Global Fund’s eight replenishment summit on Nov. 21, taking place on the margins of the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“We want to make sure that the prime minister and the Government of Canada is committed to replenishing [the Fund],” Johns said. “It’s absolutely essential that Canada take a leadership role.”

Asked about the calls to uphold the current government’s spending commitments on her way in to question period on Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand declined to comment, telling CTV News she was running late.