Harper's aid spending under the microscope

Canada's commitment to playing a lead role in a pair of major new international aid projects has some stakeholders wondering: In the midst of a clampdown on spending, where will Ottawa find the money?

On Monday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised that Canadians would stay in Haiti and help rebuild that devastated country for at least 10 years. Then on Tuesday he said the health of the world's mothers and their children would be a primary focus of the June meeting of the Group of Eight in Ontario's cottage country.

The new projects, coupled with the country's sizable financial commitments to Afghanistan, have spawned concerns that any aid flowing to new priorities will siphon money away from existing ones.


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