Prime Minister Stephen Harper shakes hands with students at a vocational school in Dakar, Senegal, on Oct. 11, 2012.JOE PENNEY/Reuters
Last year, bureaucrats at the Canadian International Development Agency produced a report outlining what Canada could expect to gain by continuing to provide foreign aid to dozens of developing countries.
The report, obtained by The Globe and Mail under access-to-information legislation, suggests Canada's commercial interests have become an important factor in determining how much aid should be provided to individual countries. Trade and investment prospects were listed as important reasons for providing ongoing aid to many of the countries in the report.
The CIDA analysis includes summaries describing 20 so-called "countries of focus" – where a majority of Canadian bilateral aid is spent – and more than a dozen other countries where Canada has a "modest" development presence. For the most part, they are places where Canada already has a development program in place.
But one country in the report remains a mystery. A single page, located in the middle of a section covering Asia, was entirely redacted by staff at the former CIDA's access-to-information office, who said the material could not be made public because it dealt with security issues and contained advice and an account of government consultations.
Still, it isn't difficult to narrow down the list of possible countries that could be behind the redaction. Since countries in the report are listed first by region and then alphabetically, it's likely that the missing country is in Asia and that its name begins with a letter between B and I (the redacted page is sandwiched between descriptions of Canadian aid to Bangladesh and Indonesia).
Canada announced more than a year ago that it would wind down aid programs in China and Cambodia, so it's improbable that either of those would still be on the list, even in March of 2013, when the report was written. And the federal government does not have significant aid programs in any of the other countries that would appear to be possibilities: India, Bhutan, Brunei, Burma (now known as Myanmar) or East Timor.
That suggests the missing country could be a proposal for a new aid program – which would help explain the decision to redact information based on the notion that it contains advice or government consultations. If that's the case, Myanmar, which is still referred to as Burma by the Canadian federal government, would appear to be the most likely candidate.
After 25 years of limited contact, the relationship between Canada and Myanmar is changing dramatically. Myanmar's government has released numerous political prisoners in recent years, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and is currently reviewing it constitution – reforms that have renewed Ottawa's interest in the Southeast Asian country.
Canada eased sanctions against Myanmar in 2012, and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development says it's now engaged with the country "through all channels." The federal government is opening an embassy in Rangoon and recently listed Myanmar as a priority market under the government's new Global Markets Action Plan, which targets specific countries for trade and investment opportunities.
The merger of CIDA with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, which was made official last year, renewed questions about a possible shake-up in the list of countries that receive foreign aid. If new countries are eventually added to the list, Canada's growing engagement with Myanmar could make that country a top candidate.
Kim Mackrael is a parliamentary reporter in the Ottawa bureau.