{"id":49203,"date":"2015-05-14T17:24:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T09:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=49203"},"modified":"2015-05-14T17:24:30","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T09:24:30","slug":"ndps-mulcair-promises-abortion-funding-for-key-foreign-aid-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/05\/14\/ndps-mulcair-promises-abortion-funding-for-key-foreign-aid-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"NDP’s Mulcair promises abortion funding for key foreign aid projects"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Thomas<\/a>
Thomas Mulclair (Facebook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GATINEAU, Quebec — The NDP would restore funding for abortion and family planning to Canada’s keynote development initiative which promotes maternal, newborn and child health.<\/p>\n

That pledge came Tuesday in a speech by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair which introduced some foreign policy planks for the Official Opposition.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made helping newborns and young mothers in the developing world his signature aid priority, committing more than $6 billion to the initiative between 2010 and 2020.<\/p>\n

But the initiative has sparked major criticism _ including from the respected medical journal, The Lancet _ because the Conservatives will not allow any money to go towards projects that include abortion.<\/p>\n

Mulcair said the NDP would reverse that policy and make funds available for family planning, reproductive and sexual health and access to abortion services.<\/p>\n

He also repeated a promise to meet the United Nations development spending goal of 0.7 per cent of GDP.<\/p>\n

The most recent analysis by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said Canada’s overall level of aid spending has fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

The OECD pegged Canada’s 2014 aid spending at 0.24 per cent of GDP, well below the UN target. In 2010-11, Canadian foreign aid stood at 0.34 per cent of GDP.<\/p>\n

The United Kingdom, by comparison, has hit the 0.7 per cent target two years in a row.<\/p>\n

Canada has never reached the goal, coming closest in the mid-1970s under the Pierre Trudeau Liberals when the level reached above 0.5 per cent of GDP.<\/p>\n

Stephen Brown, a University of Ottawa aid expert, said that to reach the 0.7 per cent of GDP target, aid spending would have to rise to $13.9 billion a year.<\/p>\n

Brown said such an increase is possible.<\/p>\n

“The only thing preventing the Canadian government from reaching the 0.7 target is the lack of political will,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The U.K.’s Conservative-led coalition reached that level last year, despite a fiscal situation far worse than Canada’s.”<\/p>\n

In a question-and-answer session after his speech, Mulcair gave no details of how long it would take to increase foreign aid, except to say it wouldn’t happen overnight.<\/p>\n

“We’re starting from far behind,” he said. “In my speech, I was careful to say we will set out a timeline.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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