Canadian charities ask Ottawa to fill ‘catastrophic’ holes that have been left by USAID – National

The auxiliary sector of Canada is braced for cataclymic suffering worldwide and asks Ottawa to fill gaps while Washington the US Agency for International Development.

There are countless Canadian projects in the dark Because the world’s largest auxiliary finance financing freezes for multilateral programs, and it is unclear what will happen with millions of dollars that Ottawa had sent USAID For programming.

The cooperation of the AID Coalition Canada says that millions of people are abruptly cut off from life -saving supplies.

“The impact of this is catastrophic, for thousands and probably millions of people around the world,” said the head of the Kate Higgins group. “It forces Canada and Canada to think about what kind of country we want to be.”

US President Donald Trump has commissioned billionaire ally Elon Musk to lower the American budget. The exercise had a 90 -day freezing on most American foreign aid, awaiting an assessment aimed at guaranteeing the expenditure that joins American interests. Thousands of employees are placed on paid leave, although courts revise those orders.

Several news items have contradicted claims from the US State Secretary Marco Rubio that most of the life -saving programs from that agency still work abroad through exemptions.

The Associated Press reported examples last Friday, such as $ 450 million US in food grown by American farmers – sufficient to feed 36 million people – that were not paid and therefore not delivered. About 1.6 million people are displaced by the war in the Darfur region in Sudan from the funds needed to make water pumps run into the desert.

Cooperation Canada represents dozens of Canadian non-profit organizations that work in international development and humanitarian aid, many of whom perform projects that expire from systems managed by USAID, or agencies of the United Nations that have considerable American financing.

“Many of them will have to be closed,” Higgins said about Canadian programs.

This includes emergency medicine, primary education and hunger dependence. It allows organizations to try to redesign their programs and collaborate with organizations from other countries to try to fill the gaps.

Higgins said that Global Affairs Canada had contact with the aid sector to help manage the disruption, but things are already falling apart.

“Critical partners, who are part of the implementation of those projects, close their doors,” she said.

In addition, data from Global Affairs Canada show a total of $ 40 million in development projects that are currently operational that Ottawa had financed USAID to perform. The projects include adaptation to climate change in Peruvian river basin and a fund that helps LGBTQ+ activists to flee violence.

Global Affairs Canada did not have to be spent the status of each project, including how much of the Canadian financing assigned to USAID.

“Global Affairs Canada assesses the situation after changes to American foreign help,” wrote spokesperson Louis-Carl Brissette Lesage. “At the moment no further decisions have been made and we will have more to say as the situation evolves.”

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USAID did not respond to an e -mail request for comment.

Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen wrote in a statement that Ottawa was ‘deeply delivered’ to work with USAID after decades.

“The loss of the leadership and the resources of USAID is a dangerous refuge that risks decades of progress when combating inequality, hunger, pandemies and authoritarianism,” wrote spokeswoman Olivia Batten.

“Worldwide challenges require collective action, and we will continue to participate by forging new partnerships that support peace, safety and prosperity for everyone.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, said last Friday that she is planning ‘absolutely’ to discuss USAID this week with Rubio, who supervises the agency on an interim basis.

The two will meet during the meeting of the G7 Foreign Ministers who will chair Joly in Germany, which takes place in addition to the Munich safety conference.

Higgins said it is’ critical ‘that Canada used that opportunity’ to show leadership at this very destabilizing point in global history. “

Joly told the Halifax Chamber of Commerce that the withdrawal of the US will only give opponents in the developing countries from foreign aid.

“I have my own opinion about what the American administration is doing with our help, but I will keep these opinions in favor of obvious reasons,” she said last Friday.

“When we create a vacuum, only China and Russia can benefit from it.”

Higgins said she hopes that Canadians realize their reputation as a compassionate country “that understands what is happening in other countries, direct consequences for our own safety and safety and prosperity.”

& copy 2025 The Canadian Press