New Democrat Priorities for G8/G20

Poverty Eradication

Keeping our promises
Since the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, G8 countries including Canada have failed to fully deliver on their promises to the developing world.

New Democrats call for Canadian leadership in:

Meeting previous G8 commitments to the Millennium Development Goals, including setting a timetable to raise aid levels to 0.7% of our gross national income by 2015.

Investing in women and children
Canada has promised to prioritize maternal and child health, reflecting the international consensus that substantial investment is required to put an end to preventable maternal and child death in the developing world. Experts estimate Canada's fair share of the global financing gap to be around $1.4 billion over five years.

New Democrats call for Canadian leadership in:

Contributing significant new funds, separate from existing Official Development Assistance, to build on successful international maternal-child health interventions.
Ensuring a robust replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Ensuring that Canadian support for maternal health in the developing world includes a commitment to strengthening sexual and reproductive health care services, including family planning and safe abortion where legal.

Tackling Climate Change

Setting emissions limits
These summits could lend momentum towards a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal to reduce emissions that cause global warming, and pave the way to achieving the Copenhagen Accord’s goal of limiting the global average temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius.

New Democrats call for Canadian leadership in:

Undertaking domestic action by advancing the ambitious, legally-binding emissions targets outlined in the Climate Change Accountability Act adopted by the House of Commons.
Cancelling government subsidies to the oil and gas industry and investing in support of a just transition to a clean energy economy.
Helping developing countries cope with climate change.

Global Financial Reform and Accountability

Funding the global recovery
The financial crisis of 2008-2009 cost both the developed and the developing world in terms of financial deficits, unemployment, lost production and accentuated poverty. Essential social programs in Canada and other developed countries have eroded or are in danger.

The crisis has also underlined the importance of an immediate crackdown on secrecy jurisdictions, or tax havens, that allow tax evasion costing developing countries an estimated $160 billion a year and developed countries billions more.

New Democrats call for Canadian leadership in:

Establishing rules to prevent the excesses which led to the financial crisis, along with multilateral efforts to eliminate tax havens.
Establishing a multilateral global fund, financed by a levy on speculative financial transactions, to restore public funds spent on addressing the recessionary effects of the financial crisis.

Enhancing accountability
The creation of the G20 has broadened representation in decision-making for the global economy, but it requires significant improvements to ensure accountability. The membership still excludes significant regions of the developing world affected by decisions made at the G20. Unlike the G8, there is no mechanism for the participation of civil society.

New Democrats call for Canadian leadership in: