Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird, right, and Minister of International Cooperation Julian Fantino wait to appear before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on Feb. 12, 2013 in Ottawa. Mr. Baird is currently on a diplomacy trip through Latin America and will press Venezuela on its ties with Iran.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
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One week after the Conservative government announced Canada's foreign-aid agency would merge with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, there are growing questions about how the change might affect staff jobs – as well as CIDA's now notoriously tight purse strings.
The shift, outlined in a couple of paragraphs in the government's 2013 budget, will be accompanied by new legislation that is expected to enshrine poverty reduction – along with commercial and other Canadian interests – as the core objective of Canadian development assistance.
The government insists the change is being made for strategic reasons, saying it will finally put Canada's international development assistance on an equal footing with foreign affairs and international trade interests. Officials from CIDA and International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino's office say the move is not a cost-saving measure, though they have acknowledged when pressed that savings are expected as the two organizations merge and some jobs are cut.
In a town hall meeting on Wednesday, CIDA staff were assured the agency's budget would not be taken over by Foreign Affairs to support other, non-development interests – a significant concern for many staff members and international development experts. They were also told the new legislation would reaffirm Canada's commitment to poverty alleviation in the developing world.
In addition to policy considerations, there are significant logistical challenges to bringing the two organizations together. The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is located in downtown Ottawa, while CIDA is housed across the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Que., and it is not yet clear when – or if – staff will be moved so all are working under the same roof.
As CIDA prepares for the merger, some aid groups are worried the approvals for new projects could grind to a halt.
"My fear is that with a thousand employees at CIDA, an amalgamation will suck the life out of everyone involved in the agency, and it may mean we're not doing anything for a long time," said Karen Takacs, executive director of Crossroads International, which runs youth internships in developing countries. "We're trying to respond to really critical issues, and we have no idea about when we might be able to do that."
At the same time, others wonder if the change could have the opposite effect. Aid groups have long suspected that the Prime Minister's Office played a considerable role in determining how development money is spent. By folding CIDA into foreign affairs and trade, the agency will be one step closer to the PMO, some groups reason, eliminating one time-consuming round of approvals.
In one sign already that things could be speeding up, the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, which represents many non-governmental organizations involved with development work, appears to have secured its first meeting with Mr. Fantino – nearly a year after the minister took charge of Canada's aid file.
After a series of planned meetings were either cancelled or postponed, the organization was contacted just hours before the merger with DFAIT was announced last Thursday to confirm an April meeting with the minister.
Mr. Fantino's office sent a statement from the minister saying the new department would maintain CIDA's poverty reduction mandate and development assistance budget. He also said he had met with other aid organizations in the past and planned to work with NGOs during the merger.
Kim Mackrael is a parliamentary reporter in The Globe's Ottawa bureau.