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CARE Canada Statement on Budget 2021: Canada will not recover unless the world recovers

The following statement is from CARE Canada President and CEO Barbara Grantham

Today the Government of Canada presented its plan to end the fight against COVID-19. It announced $375 Million towards the global pandemic response with $1.4 Billion in additional international assistance over 5 years. Much of the $1.4 billion is targeted for this year, with no indication of a long-term strategy to truly eradicate COVID-19 around the world or ensure a just and transformative recovery for the most marginalized around the world.

Keeping Canadians safe is the most crucial role of the government. Today, that means eradicating COVID-19 worldwide. Our economy is global, our communities interconnected, and we cannot solve global challenges in isolation. Health care workers on the frontlines of this crisis deserve support. Those in the world’s most vulnerable places deserve Canada’s commitment to a global recovery. As highlighted in CARE’s report Our Best Shot, no one recovers until everyone recovers.

In 2020, the Government of Canada committed $1.2 Billion in international assistance spending toward the global pandemic response, which gave people optimism that Canada was stepping up to take a leadership role in the global recovery. Decades of progress are at risk as the United Nations predicts extreme poverty will rise, for the first time in decades, by 97 million in 2021, over half of whom are women and girls.

Canada’s strength continues to be our leadership in bringing people together, showing tangible support for the world’s most vulnerable, and bringing our total commitment and solidarity for a global response. 

This budget allocation limits Canada’s ability to play a meaningful long-term role in a global recovery. Women’s leadership in local communities is fundamental to that global recovery. CARE’s experience in 100 countries worldwide has taught us that for a woman to lead, her fundamental rights must have priority. We must invest in her right to safety, health, and dignified work. 

There is still time for Canada to do better. The G7 meeting will be the next test of Canadian leadership and an opportunity to increase our collective efforts to fight the world’s most significant challenge. It will be the time to commit to international cooperation as a vital tool in our overall recovery plan while putting women and girls in the driver’s seat to lead change in their communities. Because the world is better when she leads too.  

Christina Kakaletris
media@care.ca

Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE develops solutions alongside women and girls in developing countries to lift themselves, their families, and their communities out of poverty and out of crisis. CARE stands with women and girls around the world in economic empowerment. We bring women, girls, and their communities together to challenge inequality while facing issues like food insecurity, climate change, and emergency relief in times of crisis or disaster. CARE works in 100 countries around the world.

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