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Canada working closely with EU on foreign aid as U.S. pulls back, Sarai says
Ottawa says it's working with EU on foreign aid
Canada's deepening ties with Europe could help fill some of the massive gaps left behind as the United States pulls back from foreign aid and embraces a "transactional" approach, says the secretary of state for international development.
"When we put all our heads together, I think the opportunities are endless," Randeep Sarai told The Canadian Press.
He said this effort includes recent talks with the European Union on leveraging private dollars and philanthropy for aid, while maintaining some government funding for the world's most vulnerable.
Sarai is overseeing a shift in foreign aid as the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney cuts back on global health spending and encourages more private funding in development projects.
Ottawa is cutting spending across government, seeking new trade partners and boosting the defence budget to make Canada less vulnerable to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and threats of annexation.
The Trump administration shut down the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, leading to what Harvard University researchers estimate to be hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.
In April, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reported that the U.S. in 2025 accounted for 17 per cent of spending by rich countries on foreign aid, down from 30 per cent a year prior.
U.S. spending on foreign aid dropped by 57 per cent in 2025.
Most major donor states, including Canada, have cut back on aid funding. Ottawa spends about 1.6 per cent of its budget on foreign aid.
"Taxpayer dollars are very valuable. So if we can bring in the private sector along with them, the goal is (that) eventually the private sector will invest on their own. But initially, we'll use the taxpayer dollars to entice them," Sarai said.
Sarai added that Europe has looked to Carney for guidance on so-called blended finance because of his experience as a United Nations official.
Carney's UN role was to advise governments on climate finance, including ways for governments to work with the private sector and philanthropists to transition to net-zero carbon emissions.
Ireland hosted a meeting of EU development ministers earlier this month and invited Canada to attend.
Sarai said much of the discussion in Dublin was about how to leverage private capital without abandoning support for the world's most vulnerable people.
Sarai said Canada and European countries are also working with other nations with a reputation for robust foreign aid, including Japan, Korea and Gulf nations.
He said American officials have "come back, to some degree" on aid spending by funding vaccines for children in poor countries.
"Their aid has to benefit the American economy and American people," Sarai said.
"They have very clear guidelines on that and transactional nature of it, but that's their direction. So I would say it's very different from the other G7 partners, but at least we know where we're at."
The push for more private dollars in aid has many critics.
Co-operation Canada, a coalition of most Canadian aid groups operating abroad, said the sector supports innovative funding, with some caveats.
"If we are to use public funds to incentivize private capital, then there need to be some guardrails around … that we're we're using our public funds in the most efficient way possible," said Paul Farran, the group's advocacy director.
He said aid dollars shouldn't be used to subsidize endeavours that the private sector wouldn't have otherwise funded.
"Our international assistance should first and foremost be used to alleviate poverty and inequalities," Farran said.
Sarai said Canada is not going to surrender its support for the world's poorest to market forces.
He said that applies to Canada's programming in the 32 nations the UN describes as the world's least developed countries, as well as projects that focus on sexual health and reproductive rights.
He said the government has a different approach in high-growth countries, where it pursues "mutual economic prosperity" through projects that benefit Canadian companies and investors while creating jobs abroad.
"The Vietnams, Indonesias, Philippines in the world, we believe that they can now take care of those areas themselves. We don't need to invest in those particular areas for them," he said.
Sarai cited a new aid project in Thailand which will see Canada's development finance institution FinDev lend cash for microloans to women in rural areas looking to launch or expand businesses.
Canada is lending roughly $85 million, which is being matched by $280 million from the Japanese bank SMBC and the Asian Development Bank.
Last month, The House finance committee, which has a majority of Liberal MPs, called on Carney last month to provide predictable and clear aid funding in the Nov. 5 budget.
Aid groups told the committee that the federal government says its supports for refugees inside Canada amount to more than 17 per cent of its total development assistance. While that's a standard reporting practice for western countries, the aid groups said it makes it hard to tell how much Canadian cash is actually going abroad.
The MPs on the committee argued aid spending should be "guided by poverty and fragility" and should have "increasing transparency in the international assistance envelope."
The MPs also urged Canada to "reaffirm gender equality and women’s economic empowerment as drivers of poverty reduction and, therefore, as central priorities." Carney caused confusion a year ago by suggesting Canada no longer has a feminist foreign policy.
Co-operation Canada supports those calls and is urging Carney to reverse cuts to global health programs.
Farran said Canada should earmark $5.5 billion annually for "core" development aid abroad, which would boost funding for things like building schools or helping women advocate for political rights.
He also said Ottawa owes the public more clarity on how it is spending foreign aid and where it's cutting back.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2026.
By Dylan Robertson | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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B.C. election at a glance: NDP talks nursing ratios, Conservatives tout Surrey plan
B.C. election at a glance: Nursing, Surrey, arts
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
The British Columbia election campaign is in its closing stages, with advance voting wrapping up ahead of final voting day on Saturday.
Here are some of the latest developments on the campaign trail.
ADVANCE VOTING DROPS SHARPLY
Six days of advance voting have ended, with Elections BC data showing numbers are down more than 11 per cent compared to 2024, bucking a two-decade upward trend.
There were 891,348 advance votes cast from Friday to Wednesday, representing about 24 per cent of all registered voters.
That compares to more than one million advance votes cast in 2024, when numbers spiked 49 per cent over the previous election.
This year's advance voting period overlapped with the municipal election that had its final voting day last Saturday.
EBY AND DOERKSON FOCUS ON SURREY
Interim B.C. Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson has unveiled what he calls the "Surrey success plan" for B.C.'s second-largest city.
Both Doerkson and NDP leader Eby have been concentrating on vote-rich Surrey in the final week of the campaign.
Doerkson says his party's plan has three pillars, health care, transit and transportation.
Both parties have pledged new hospitals and to extend the SkyTrain to Surrey's Newton neighbourhood, but differ on how to handle traffic problems, with the Conservatoves vowing to scrap an upgrade of the Massey tunnel in favour of a 10-lane bridge.
Doerkson is scheduled to hold a rally in the city that has 10 ridings later Thursday, while Eby was in Surrey on Wednesday and held a rally near city hall that drew hundreds of supporters.
The NDP leader, campaigning in Vancouver on Thursday, called Surrey "a vitally important city in the province."
NDP VOWS TO PUT NURSE-PATIENT RATIOS INTO LAW
Eby says the NDP would put minimum nurse-to-patient ratios into law.
He says in a campaign stop outside Vancouver General Hospital, where he was surrounded by nurses and other health care workers that establishing the ratios is "technical work" and they will vary depending on what type of care is being provided.
Eby says that work is already underway, and putting the ratios into legislation will ensure "nurses are not diverted to other purposes."
The NDP says in a statement that Eby has committed to adding 1,000 training places for nurses, nurse practitioners, allied health workers and care aides.
GREENS ROLL OUT RED CARPET FOR THE ARTS
The BC Greens have announced the party's plan to support the arts, from the movie industry to local performing spaces.
Leader Emily Lowan says the party would make it easier to film, perform and create in B.C.
She says underinvestment in the arts and the "cost-of-living crisis" have meant the closure of community arts spaces and put "downward pressure" on artists who make the province vibrant.
The party says it will make B.C. the easiest place in North America for film permitting, bring in simpler zoning and lower fees for smaller venues booking local artists, and increase the BC Arts Council budget by more than 50 per cent to $65 million.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2026.
By Canadian Press Staff | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Cette friperie à Montréal est parfaite pour trouver ton costume d'Halloween à bon prix
Pas besoin de te ruiner pour le costume parfait! ✨
Avec les partys d'Halloween qui s'ajoutent à ton calendrier, tu risques d'avoir besoin d'un ou plusieurs costumes, et il faut le dire, ceux faits maison ont souvent un look plus authentique que ceux que tu peux acheter dans les magasins éphémères dédiés à cette fête. Si tu veux justement te servir de ta créativité pour te déguiser cette année, une friperie de Montréal est l'endroit idéal pour dénicher des morceaux uniques à bon prix.
À lire également : 9 costumes d’Halloween qui vont faire fureur au Québec cette année
La Chiffonnière Friperie & Café, aussi appelée La Chiffonnière Friperie et Brocante, se décrit également comme une costumerie, où pièces funky et costumes remplissent les rayons. Tu peux donc entrer sans trop savoir ce que tu cherches et ressortir avec un ensemble complet qui risque de faire fureur.
Et à voir les dernières publications de la boutique sur Instagram, il y a de quoi laisser aller ton imagination. Des fantômes qui ont visiblement un faible pour la mode aux sorcières au look mystérieux en passant par des personnages tout droit sortis d'un film d'horreur, les possibilités semblent assez nombreuses. Tu pourrais aussi bien recréer une tenue inspirée de Scream que te concocter un costume de créature étrange ou un ensemble digne d'une soirée d'Halloween rétro.
Pour ce qui est des accessoires, tu peux mettre la main sur des lunettes vintage, des chapeaux, des bijoux, des bottes, des cuissardes et toutes sortes de vêtements qui pourraient donner une touche originale à ton déguisement. Et le plus intéressant, c'est que plusieurs de ces morceaux pourront facilement retrouver leur place dans ta garde-robe une fois l'Halloween passée.
Côté prix, les accessoires et les costumes d'Halloween les plus simples se vendent entre 5 $ et 30 $. Tu peux notamment dénicher des perruques, des masques et quelques déguisements à petit prix. Pour les pièces plus uniques, comme les costumes complets ou les vêtements d'époque, il faut plutôt prévoir entre 40 $ et 80 $. Que tu souhaites assembler un costume de la tête aux pieds ou simplement trouver quelques accessoires pour transformer des vêtements que tu possèdes déjà, tu pourras donc adapter tes recherches à ton budget.
Ton prochain costume coup de cœur pourrait bien être une trouvaille de seconde main, et personne d'autre à ta soirée ne risque d'avoir exactement le même.
La Chiffonnière Friperie & Café
Prix : Entre 5 $ et 80 $
Adresse : 1840, rue Ontario E., Montréal, QC
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