Liberal MP fears Ottawa will soon release a cash-strapped Africa strategy

OTTAWA — A Liberal MP who has long advocated for closer ties with Africa fears her government is on the verge of releasing an Africa strategy with no significant spending attached, years after the government promised a plan.

Ontario MP Arielle Kayabaga has helped the government craft its Africa strategy since it announced a plan was in the works in early 2022.

Kayabaga said the plan could come as soon as this week. In a Zoom call she hosted last Wednesday for supporters of the strategy, she said she fears the plan might not be adequately funded.

Kayabaga told participants in the call that her “biggest concern” is that her government’s decision to prorogue Parliament until next month means there might not be spending attached to the Africa strategy on par with the $2.3 billion that Ottawa earmarked for the Indo-Pacific strategy it launched in 2022.

“We’re going to learn a lot from what that strategy looked like, and the mistakes that they’ve learned from. And we want to make sure that we can replicate something that works,” she said.

Kayabaga would not specify what mistakes arose from the Indo-Pacific strategy, but said in a Tuesday phone interview that Global Affairs Canada has been looking at how to make the existing regional plan more effective.

She told last week’s call that she was expecting news about the Africa strategy by the end of February — Black History Month in Canada — but added Tuesday that she’s hearing it could come even sooner.

Around early 2022, the Trudeau government set out to craft an Africa strategy aimed at identifying regions and topics on which Canada should focus its diplomatic efforts on the continent.

The government downgraded the strategy to a framework in 2023, but then changed its mind last November and announced it would be a full strategy.

Two organizations briefed on the government’s plans told The Canadian Press they were told last week the strategy likely will come without significant spending in the near term, though it may include financing through Crown corporations such as Export Development Canada.

Representatives from those organizations — who weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the government’s plans before they were released — were told Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly may launch the strategy later this week while she is in South Africa for G20 meetings, with a joint event occurring in Canada.

Joly would not say when the strategy will launch but responded Tuesday to concerns about funding by pointing to the aid Canada has sent to African countries.

“We’ve been investing more than $4 billion in Africa over the last five years,” she said at a virtual news conference from Brussels.

“Canada is present and will continue to be present — and contrary to certain countries, we believe that international aid is important and we will continue to invest in it.”

That likely was a reference to the Trump administration’s decision to suspend most U.S. humanitarian and development spending – a decision that put a sudden end to life-saving medical and water aid.

That abrupt shift was not what African governments had in mind when they started asking Western countries in recent years to gradually shift from a focus on foreign aid to unlocking better financing terms for public and private sector investments.

Their request comes amid a continental debt crisis that stems from the global rise in interest rates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You are absolutely missing on the development-finance institution side,” South Africa’s High Commissioner to Canada Rieaz Shaik told a Senate committee last December.

He added that “the first and most important thing” Ottawa needs in order to boost trade and build on Canada’s positive legacy in Africa is an adequate number of diplomats on the continent.

“You should increase the resources that you put into your Africa branch in Global Affairs Canada,” he said. “Africa is very fast-moving and it requires deep knowledge, which you only get from your missions on the ground.”

That echoed recommendations from the House foreign affairs committee, which said in a November report that Ottawa should be “increasing the number and size of its missions” and “make the necessary investments to ensure that the departments and agencies responsible for its Africa strategy have personnel with in-depth knowledge.”

Quebec Sen. Amina Gerba told Kayabaga’s Feb. 12 Zoom call that she hopes the strategy will result in government ministers leading trade missions the way the Liberals have already done on other continents. She said there’s a cultural expectation in most parts of Africa that high-ranking officials will actually show up for meetings.

“We have to show ourselves in African countries with the minister leading the commercial delegation with companies — not online,” said Gerba, whose career before politics focused on trade with African economies.

“Online trade in Africa is not enough. It even is not respectful for businesspeople. When you see China going to Africa, when you see France going to Africa, the head of state is in the plane with companies ready to sign contracts.”

Kayabaga urged Canadians who are part of African diasporas, and those with investments on the continent, to donate to political campaigns and ask for meetings with political leaders, including Liberal leadership candidates.

“It’s not just conversation. It’s the transactions. Are we comfortable to have political transactions, and how far are we willing to go?” she said, arguing African diaspora groups are not as well organized as some other communities.

“The world is a transactional place, and let’s play our part. Let’s play the game,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 18, 2025.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press