Stephen Harper Foreign-Aid-Through-Mining Plan Gets Test Drive In Peru
Stephen Harper Foreign-Aid-Through-Mining Plan Gets Test Drive In Peru
CP | By Heather Scoffield, The Canadian Press Posted: 05/22/2013 4:00 am EDT | Updated: 05/22/2013 1:11 pm EDT
LIMA, Peru - The Senate expenses scandal is turning Prime Minister Stephen Harper's visit to South America into an awkward communications exercise.
Harper's officials have indicated that the prime minister will finally take questions early this afternoon on the Prime Minister's Office involvement in reimbursing Senator Mike Duffy $90,000 for improper housing expense claims. But Harper will be next to Peruvian President Ollanta Humala Tasso in a joint presentation that was supposed to be about boosting the mining sector to aid development in Peru.
So Harper took the rare step of announcing a $53-million aid package and the text of the joint statement well before holding any meetings with Peruvians in the hopes of garnering some attention for his policy plan.
The $53 million will be spread over six years and go towards mining-related initiatives and education — a new and controversial approach for Canada's aid and foreign policy that places natural resource extraction and promotion of Canadian business at the centre.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/05/22/stephen-harper-foreign-aid-mining_n_3317240.html