G8 – G20 News in Brief
by Lisa Nickol, B Channel News Editor
UPDATED
Haiti/Canada: Canada, who cancelled the debt owed by Haiti to Canada following the earthquake in January 2010, has led a G-20 consensus to forgive debt owed by Haiti to international financial institutions.
“Canada has fully honoured its international pledge to the people of Haiti, and we urge others to follow this example at the G-20 Leaders’ Summit this weekend,” said Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.
Maternal Health: The G20 will approve Canada’s plan to invest billions of dollars into maternal health programs in developing nations. The G20-funded project allows each nation to decide how they will allocate the funds.
“Each nation will develop their own plans,” said Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.
Canada will allocate $1 billion to the plan.
Economic Recovery through Austerity: At the G20 Summit, the leaders agreed to lower their deficits by 50% by the year 2014. G20 countries will also be stopping the growth of their debt.
Some countries have already put forward a budget that reflects these principles; the G20 has said that these measures are optional.
The market reaction has been mild.
Austerity is one theory for dealing with an economic crisis; governments cut back on spending and focus on debt reduction. Austerity measures can however, have a negative effect on the economy as the threat of cutbacks can cause people to save their money and with increased layoffs consumerism can drop.
The United States who wanted to put forth a second stimulus package, will be adopting the G20 austerity measures.
The implementation will be guided by the International Monetary Fund, which supports the measures and helped draft the frame work. The IMF who has a membership of 176 countries, is seeing a renewed amount of influence on the world’s wealthiest nations.
“Specifically we should agree that deficits will be halved by 2013 and we should also agree government debt-to-GDP ratio should be stabilized by 2016, at the least on a downward path,” Prime Minister, Stephen Harper told the G20 leaders.
G8 Continuation: Prime Minister, Stephen Harper told reporters after the G8 Summit in Huntsville, Ont., that the G8 is still a, “pretty essential organization”.
The G20, despite its growing forum for economic cooperation discussions will not be replacing the G8 summit.
Costing/France: President Sarkozy has pledged that the Summit in France next will cost 1/10 of Canada’s.
Protests: Media reports indicate around 25,000 attended a protest against the G-20 Summit in Toronto on Saturday, June 26. Subsequent marches were held on Sunday, the closing day of the G20 Summit. 900 people were arrested and detained, the largest mass arrest in Canadian history.
Dimitri Soudas, chief spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that “thugs” were responsible for the riots and that the federal government has no regrets choosing Toronto as the G20 site.
The Mayor of Toronto has expressed that the summit should never have been held in downtown Toronto, the city had told the federal government if they are set on hosting the G20 in Toronto it should have been at the exhibition grounds, not in the downtown core. The federal government will not be compensating the city for loss of wages and property damages that occured during the summits.
The Toronto Police Service has set up the G20 Investigative Team to examine all crimes committed during the Summit and is asking for public help for information and pictures and videos of ‘violent’ acts being committed. They will also be launching an investigation on the measures used by their police force against the protestors. TPS made up a fraction of the overall security team. On Sunday, the OPP relieved the TPS of their duties. The OPP and the ISU are not currently investigating the use of police tactics which saw journalists, medics, lawyers, tourists, citizens and peaceful protestors detained.
Some of the issues being raised at the demonstrations are poverty, war and occupation, the openness and accountability of the summit, climate change, unemployment, etc.
Aid to Africa: Canada has made a pledge to make up to $2.6 billion
available to Africa to help jump-start lending. Ottawa will provide “callable capital” to the African Development Bank. According to the PMO’s office, the African Development Bank is potentially facing a $3-billion shortfall next year. Demands for loans that are expected to exceed $15 billion.
Bank Tax: The G20 has concluded that each individual country will be left to decide whether or not they want to impose a bank tax. Canada was one of the countries advocated against a bank tax. The International Monetary Fund will aid countries in developing a framework for the tax.
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