Conservative government fails Pakistan in time of need

“The floods in Pakistan are an immense natural disaster and the Government’s response has been completely inadequate,” said New Democrat Leader Jack Layton. “Minister Oda has offered just seven cents of aid to each flood victim in that country. It’s a shameful response to one of the worst natural disasters in recent memory.”

New Democrat Critic for International Cooperation John Rafferty said the Harper government is out of touch with the growing crisis in Pakistan and that other countries have already stepped forward with more aid.

“The United Nations is saying now that 14 million Pakistanis have been displaced and that the damage is actually worse than all of the major disasters of the past 10 years, so why is Canada’s contribution just $2 million, or seven cents per victim? Even Australia, with a smaller economy than ours has already donated more than $9 million according to Oxfam.”

Rafferty said Canada’s aid contribution should have been increased once details started to emerge last week on the massive scale of the disaster. “When it was reported last week that 14 million people were displaced a light should have gone off somewhere in the government. We should have increased our aid within days of the initial commitment and offered the services of Canada’s Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) as we did during the 2005 Pakistan earthquake.”

Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said: “This disaster is worse than the tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the Haiti earthquake.” The Obama administration announced an additional $20 million in aid yesterday bringing the total US commitment to $55 million, or 27 times that of the Harper government.