OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Paul Martin says he won't buckle under international pressure and commit to boosting foreign aid until he figures out how to pay for it.
"Until I'm in a position to tell Canadians unequivocally how and when, I don't believe in making commitments in the air," the PM said during a press conference yesterday, capping off a tumultuous spring parliamentary session.
Martin urged world leaders to commit to more realistic intermediate benchmarks instead of making empty promises of boosting foreign aid to 0.7% of gross domestic product by 2015.
Martin said that would keep leaders' feet to the fire instead of seeing them turn their back like some have done with donation promises to tsunami victims after benefiting from positive headlines.
"The problem is that too many leaders have committed to things that are a decade away knowing that they may not be around when the time comes to fulfill that commitment," the PM said.
"I'm not going to do that to Canadians and I'm not going to do that to people in the rest of the world who are hoping."
Martin said he won't be pressured at next week's G-8 conference in Scotland to boost Canada's foreign aid, but will work towards having other factors like trade, military contributions and research included in what is considered in that amount.
And Martin said even a pending federal election won't push him towards committing to boosting foreign aid to 0.7% of Canada's GDP.
"I'm not going to do that because there's an election coming, I'm not going to do that under any circumstances," he said.
Martin said he hasn't planned any meetings on foreign aid with good friend and rock star Bono or Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof during next week's G-8 conference.
"Nobody has asked to meet with me and I've not asked to meet with anyone," the PM said.
But International Cooperation Minister Aileen Carroll, who oversees Canada's foreign aid, told Sun Media the Liberal government has a solid track record and insisted Canada's commitment can't be measured by the 0.7% target alone.
"While I have a great respect for Sir Bob Geldof, I think that's a little simplistic," she said in an interview. "Everything that we've learned in development over the 40 years we've been involved has shown us without the efficiencies, if we don't have effective aid, then all the volume in the world is not going to get those countries pulled out of the poverty they're in."
Gerry Bar, co-chair of the Make Poverty History Campaign, called that a "shameful gap" between aspiration and performance. It was former Liberal prime minister Lester B. Pearson, he notes, who first pushed for the international benchmark.
"It signals a chronic inability to make good on the promise," Bar said.
- with files from Kathleen Harris
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