Canada ranked 7th in foreign aid spending among richest nations

While Canada is one of the top contributors to foreign aid among some of the world’s richest countries, a fifth of the spending never leaves Canada’s borders.

Some 19 per cent of Canada’s aid reported to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development last year benefited refugees and Ukrainians within Canada.

“Most Canadians would not think that counts, because when we think of foreign aid we think of something happening in other countries, not costs that we have here,” said Elise Legault, Canada director with the One Campaign, an anti-poverty advocacy group.

Canada ranks seventh for dollars spent on foreign aid, according to the OECD, a group of mostly rich countries.

Last month, the organization released its analysis of aid spending in 2023.

It shows Canada spent just over US$8 billion in aid last year, of which $1.5 billion went to supporting refugees, asylum claimants and Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion, during their first year in Canada.

The tabulation includes provincial and federal spending in this area, and it folds in Ukrainians who came to Canada on an emergency visa to wait out the war, but who are not technically refugees.

The spending accounts for 19 per cent of Canada’s foreign aid, compared to an average of 13.8 among other OECD countries.

The United States spends 9.7 per cent of its aid budget within its own borders, while the United Kingdom spends 28 per cent domestically.

Unlike some other countries, Legault says the refugee spending is not eating into Canada’s baseline foreign-aid budget.

“So far, they haven’t been robbing Peter to pay Paul,” she said.

“Other countries like the U.K. and Sweden have been raiding their foreign-aid budgets to cover the cost of refugees arriving in the country,