Event Summary:
University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs, "Governing the Global Economy: The Role of the G20"
June 16-18, 2010
The Honourable Bev Oda, Canada's Minister of International Cooperation
Summary by Derek Dunfield
June 16th, 2010 - Taking the lead role on child and maternal health, Minister Oda stands at the center of the storm for
the G8. Ten years have passed since the UN millennium goals to eliminate poverty, and Minister Oda believes the
G8 will play a key role in helping the world meet these goals by 2015. In her words, development as usual is no
longer an option. Sustainable outcomes are the key. To achieve these, Canada will champion better trackers and
indicators for the success of international aid. An example given by the Minister was a common nutrition indicator,
such as arm width or height. Today many countries do not even have base data for health related development goals,
making the need for these common indicators and simple front-of-the-line reports even more critical. As the lead
supplier of vitamin A and the country that originated sprinkles, Canada can make a significant impact to child and
maternal health by assuring nutrition and micronutrient programs are directly integrated into aid. Healthy mothers
mean healthy births. By stressing outcomes rather than outputs, Canada hopes to change the face of aid promises,
and Minister Oda believes the message is coming through. "You can't just promise. Big numbers without delivery
mean nothing."
The Honourable Bev Oda's speech is available online.
Senator Mike Duffy
Summary by Derek Dunfield
June 17th, 2010 - No one in the media is telling the public what is really going on. Summits have changed the world.
This was Senator Duffy's message at the Munk Centre for International Studies on Thursday night. "Once you get
beyond the froth, we have some important things happening." Summits allow leaders to get things done, and with
Canada's recent ascension as one of the most financially stable countries in the world, we are positioned to lead.
Assuring the G20 focuses on what they've already agreed on will be Canada's main goal. New ideas like the bank tax
aren't required as long as long as countries are held accountable to their original commitments. In Senator Duffy's
opinion, the summit is one of the best venues to achieve this. "Can you imagine a Geneva Convention for airport
security?" It would never work! In the summit format however, bosses agree and "the underlings will make it happen."
In fact, this is the very reason Prime Minister Trudeau pushed so hard to "get us into the club". Originally, summits
were intimate. Small was beautiful. Members of the summit could meet without political pressures and feel free to
speak openly. Now with the G20 including 1000's of aids and multiple side-groups, things become more difficult.
Senator Duffy's biggest criticism was Canada's recent media coverage of the events. With a focus on protestors and
fake lakes, news has become no more than entertainment. "Unless you grab a person's attention in 10 seconds
they're gone." "Coming up, so and so marries a goat" may retain viewers, but it is at the expense of putting civic
concerns at the forefront. "From the inside" Senator Duffy now sees how public policy discussed in the G8 and G20 is
"serious stuff", and "for God's sake we need an involved public" to discuss it.
Senator Mike Duffy's speech is available online.
The Honourable Peter Van Loan, Minister of International Trade
Summary by Mona Pinchis
July 18, 2010 - Against the backdrop of an increasingly globalized world scene, and with the heightened attention on Canada due to the upcoming G8 and G20 Summits, the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs' G8 and G20 Research Groups hosted a series of conferences, entitled "Joining the Global Conversation" from June 16 to June 20, 2010 in Toronto. The Canadian International Council-Toronto Branch was a proud sponsor of this program, which focused on Canada's progress as an attractive open society and growing economy, as well as a vital centre for the global conversations at both the forthcoming G8 and G20 Summits.
Aimed to provide detailed and timely advice to the G8 and G20 governments and information to a broader stakeholder audience, the program brought together an expert group to speak about the current status of the key issues that the Muskoka and Toronto Summits will address. In partnership with the Canadian International Council-Toronto Branch and a series of other influential communities, the Munk School of Global Affairs' G8 and G20 Research Groups connected scholars, students and professionals in the academic, research, business and non-governmental arenas to come together to offer their global outlook to improve transparency and foster discussion about global governance and global security. Additionally, these talks would contribute towards the Munk School of Global Affairs' long term goals for creating comprehensive strategies to manage the growing intersection and multiple dimensions of finance, trade and economic development with critical social, environmental, and health issues.
The Honourable Peter Van Loan, Minister of International Trade, delivered the keynote speech at the "Governing the Global Economy: The Role of the G20" session on June 18th, 2010. Minister Van Loan has developed diverse experience through his involvement in the community, in the Progressive Conservative Party, in his professional life as a lawyer and in the academic world. As Canada emerges from the global economic downturn, Minister Van Loan advocated the Canadian Government's focus on the economy. Outlining Canada's priorities for next week's G20 meeting, Minister Van Loan highlighted Canada's free trade leadership and economic successes to boost Canada's presence in the world.
Minister Van Loan encouraged Canada's position as a confident and rising free trade leader, and presented the Muskoka and Toronto meetings as an opportunity for Canada to act as global interlocutor between current and emerging world powers. Minister Van Loan promoted Canada's steady economic growth and sound banking systems as evidence that the Canadian success story will assist in presenting Canada as a premiere contributor to developing business, trade and development in the future.
Minister Van Loan stressed that no one country can fully recover in isolation from its trading partners and that a core message from Canada at the G20 Summit will be to open doors to free trade around the world. Minister Van Loan suggested Canada may lead by example to show that a sustainable global economic recovery depends on a clear spirit of cooperation to foster greater market access and by avoiding protectionist measures. To bolster open and free trade, Minister Van Loan presented Canada's ambitious trade strategy with initiatives that would build on the success of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and included: i) free trade agreements with Peru and the European Free Trade Association, ii) legislation to implement free trade agreements with Jordan and Colombia, iii) a newly signed free trade agreement with Panama, iv) continuing negotiations toward a significant Canada-European Union trade agreement, and v) a joint study with India to develop negotiations for a comprehensive economic partnership in the future.
Despite being a young collaboration, the G20 Summits remain a timely opportunity to focus on the global economy. In the world's ongoing economic recovery, the G20 faces complex challenges when harmonizing diverse government mandates and varied international strategic economic and security projects. Minister Van Loan stressed that the G20 meetings must be an occasion for countries to reaffirm commitments made at last year's Pittsburgh Summit, so that the G20 governments could continue to work on restoring the health of the global economy and establish sustainable growth and development. To that end, Minister Van Loan cited accountability as an important theme of the forthcoming talks. Minister Van Loan stated that the Canadian government would remain committed to rallying global support for critical economic objectives and free trade by resisting protectionism to continue economic recovery.
Minister Van Loan's keynote address also centred on the importance of attracting investment to Canada and enhancing Canada's role in becoming a global partner in business development. With the world's eyes on Canada this year and recently cited as the best place to do business in the world in the next five years, Minister Van Loan was proud to highlight Canada's economic successes, as well as Canada's internationally recognized position as an open and friendly free enterprise environment. Minister Van Loan concluded that as the Canadian Government welcomes the world to Canada, he wanted to encourage Canadians to talk up the benefits of free trade and create an open and thriving global market scene for the future.
The Honourable Peter Van Loan's speech is available online.
The Honourable Peter Van Loan, Minister of International Trade
Summary by Derek Dunfield
June 18th, 2010 - The countries of the G20 account for 90% of Global Output, 80% of World Trade, and 2/3 of the
World Population - making the G20 summits some of the most important public policy meetings of the 21st century.
As the recent economic crisis has shown us, no country can exist in isolation of its trading partners. Canada has
embraced this fact and is promoting proactive free trade to help all countries recover from the downturn. While free
trade used to be the "extreme", Minister Van Loan now sees it orthodox for our generation. The Minister was proud to
note the Governments promotion of free trade agreements with countries such as Peru, Jordan, Columbia, Panama,
and the EU. By positioning Canada as a global leader after the recession due to its economic success, Minister Van
Loan hopes to convince other countries to resist protectionism. He notes the irony of other G20 nations agreeing in
principle, while at the same time increasing agricultural tariffs. The Sovereign Debt Crisis has helped restore focus on
the economic downturn and reminded G20 nations that the world is not yet out of the lion's den. Minister Van Loan
sees this as one of his most valuable assets. "It's hard enough to get an agreement with 20 around the table. It's
even more difficult if discussion isn't focused like a laser beam on the economy."
The Honourable Peter Van Loan's speech is available online.
The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Summary by Derek Dunfield
July 18, 2010 - The countries of the G8 account for 70% of UN budget, 79% of the UN peacekeeping budget, and
82% of the official budget for International Assistance - giving Canada the ear of the most powerful countries in the
world. Chairing the 2010 summit, Canada hopes to advance topics on peace and security discussed by Minister
Cannon and his colleagues at the G8 Foreign Ministers meeting, including nuclear disarmament and proliferation.
According to Minister Cannon, Canada is working toward a 4th round of comprehensive sanctions for Iran and has
already called for North Korea to return to 6 party talks. As North Korea may be working to export its nuclear
technology to Burma, Canada sees this country as a primary threat. Afghanistan and Pakistan are a second key
issue in global security to be discussed by the G8. With only 12 months left before Canada leaves Afghanistan,
Minister Cannon hopes to see the Afghan government demonstrate its ability to provide improved governance and
security for its people. Canada supports a national reconciliation process to achieve this end. Canada will continue to
support the government of Pakistan to fight terror along its border. Minister Cannon reminds us that the "Toronto 18"
have a direct link to the Pakistani border region. Building on Canada's work facilitating dialog between Pakistan and
Afghanistan, the G8 foreign ministers have launched the Border Region Posterity Initiative to help build economic
conditions along the border to stop terror at its root. When asked if security issues should be specific to the G8
Minister Cannon states that "we are in the beginning of an evolution". Success on the economic crisis by the G20
suggests that other successes may be possible in other realms.
The Honourable Lawrence Cannon's speech is available online.
View the event flyer: Flyer.
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