Canadian aid practitioners say they were surprised by the prime minister's choice last week of Julian Fantino to replace Bev Oda as the new international co-operation minister.
While names like Kellie Leitch, Chris Alexander, and Rona Ambrose were being thrown around in the press and in the heads of Canadian aid workers, Mr. Fantino "wasn't, I think, on anyone's short list except the prime minister's," said Rosemary McCarney, president and CEO of Plan Canada, with a chuckle.
"Not for any reason of knowledge or anything else," she was quick to add. "[It] just wasn't the profile that you expected into this role."
Mr. Fantino has a reputation for being a hard-nosed, law-and-order cop, who worked his way up from humble beginnings as a pre-teen Italian immigrant to Canada who couldn't speak an English word, to a man who spent nearly 40 years serving and running Ontario's top cop-shops.
The Canadian International Development Agency, meanwhile, has been called a "pink ghetto," and a "softer ministry." It's no surprise, say some, that the last men to run the agency were in 1996 and 1997.
Since Ms. Oda's resignation July 3 after reports of high spending, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's small Cabinet shuffle the next day has prompted critics to question the seemingly incongruous fit of Mr. Fantino, the MP for Vaughan, Ont., and international co-operation.
He's not steeped in an understanding of international development, and as the Tories' most recent point man on the troubled F-35 fighter jet purchase, he had his hands dirtied, say some critics, so he isn't a credible choice to trust with Canada's $5-billion international assistance budget.
But Mr. Fantino and his supporters have pointed out his previous internationally focused policing and emergency management roles, his ability to manage big budgets, and his jobs as the former commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, and chief of the Toronto, York region, and London police services. Plus, he has a caring side.
A law-and-order guy with a soft side
Former Liberal international co-operation critic Glen Pearson could barely believe it when his daughter sent him a text message saying she thought the prime minister had appointed Mr. Fantino as the next CIDA minister.
When it was confirmed, he sat down and wrote a column for Huffington Post Canada blasting the choice.
Mr. Fantino entered Parliament in a fall 2010 byelection win, only months before Mr. Pearson failed to be re-elected as an MP. Their parliamentary relationship was short, but Mr. Pearson wrote in his column that Mr. Fantino has a reputation as "a take-no-prisoners hardliner."
Putting him in charge of international development "will now set Canada's reputation as a compassionate nation back even further."
He predicted difficult days to come at CIDA as development professionals leave for other organizations, "realizing that you can't oversee an accountable and compassionate government agency when a [p]rime [m]inister selects someone more interested in domestic partisanship than international [co-operation]."
CIDA is seen as a "softer" ministry, he later said. "It's supposed to be more of the caring, compassionate side of Canada's influence in the world."
He also remarked: "CIDA needs a woman in the ministry right now," to continue its ongoing maternal, child, and newborn health focus that Prime Minister Stephen Harper championed during Canada's 2010 hosting of the G8 Muskoka summit.
Plus, because CIDA's headquarters is in Quebec, it would have been wise to choose someone who speaks better French. Mr. Fantino is bilingual, in English and Italian—not French.
Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett told the Canadian Press that the procurement file, under Mr. Fantino as associate defence minister, was a "total disaster, in terms of the lack of accountability." She questioned why he was being given a full Cabinet minister's job.
Mr. Fantino, in an interview with the CBC after taking his new post, defended his work on the controversial F-35s, a file that had "hundreds of fingerprints" on it, he said.
He said he would fight for the public purse at CIDA.
"I'll be looking for efficiencies," he told the CBC. "I will be bringing...my own previous value system, with respect to ensuring that every nickel of taxpayer money is spent for the right reasons."
He also pointed out his responsibility for Ontario's aid to the United States after 2005's Hurricane Katrina, and that he travelled to Pakistan as part of the province's recovery aid to it following a 2008 earthquake there.
Mr. Fantino is a "law-and-order guy," said Conservative Senator Bob Runciman. "No question he's a strong leader."
He'll be able to use those skills to inspire CIDA to work at its best and make it a more administratively effective organization, he added.
"If he sees something that's not performing well, he's not going to try and obscure it or try to justify it. He'll do something about it to correct it," said Mr. Runciman.
Development practitioners have said they were hoping for someone with a reputation as a team player who can consult and build consensus.
Despite his authoritative persona, Mr. Runciman said Mr. Fantino has a soft side and has proven his ability to consult with minority groups during his Toronto job. He and Mr. Fantino developed a strong working relationship over the years, including when Mr. Runciman was Ontario's solicitor general and Mr. Fantino was Toronto's police chief.
"He's a caring individual. I know he did a lot of work for kids at-risk while he was in Toronto, raised a lot of money...So that's the side of him that perhaps the public didn't get to see a lot of," said Mr. Runciman.
Long to-do list
While Mr. Fantino's appointment was a surprise for groups like the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, spokesperson Chantal Havard said her umbrella organization is ready to meet with him.
Development NGOs have a list of key priorities for Mr. Fantino.
NGOs accused Ms. Oda of micro-managing, leading to decision-making delays as files piled up on her desk.
"We hope that Mr. Fantino will have more trust in his staff and delegate the decision-making process, both within the agency and also in the field offices and to recipient countries as well," said Ms. Havard.
After years of sporadic thematic and geographic focuses, CIDA finally has a list of focus countries and priority themes, said Mr. McCarney. Although they may not be loved by all, the fact that they're there is crucial, she said.
"The last thing we want is to have [Mr. Fantino] reinvent the wheel, with new priorities, new themes," she said.
Mr. Harper wants to continue with the maternal and child health program, Mr. Fantino told the CBC. He said he didn't see a need to shift away from such recently identified Muskoka priorities.
Mr. Fantino has experience managing large-scale bureaucracies, said James Haga, director of advocacy with Engineers Without Borders Canada. CIDA has been fingered in that category, he added.
Mr. Fantino will have to communicate the agency's results to Canadians and fight for it around the Cabinet table, he said.
"I'm going to wait and see what really comes."
Original Article
Source: embassy mag
Author: Kristen Shane
While names like Kellie Leitch, Chris Alexander, and Rona Ambrose were being thrown around in the press and in the heads of Canadian aid workers, Mr. Fantino "wasn't, I think, on anyone's short list except the prime minister's," said Rosemary McCarney, president and CEO of Plan Canada, with a chuckle.
"Not for any reason of knowledge or anything else," she was quick to add. "[It] just wasn't the profile that you expected into this role."
Mr. Fantino has a reputation for being a hard-nosed, law-and-order cop, who worked his way up from humble beginnings as a pre-teen Italian immigrant to Canada who couldn't speak an English word, to a man who spent nearly 40 years serving and running Ontario's top cop-shops.
The Canadian International Development Agency, meanwhile, has been called a "pink ghetto," and a "softer ministry." It's no surprise, say some, that the last men to run the agency were in 1996 and 1997.
Since Ms. Oda's resignation July 3 after reports of high spending, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's small Cabinet shuffle the next day has prompted critics to question the seemingly incongruous fit of Mr. Fantino, the MP for Vaughan, Ont., and international co-operation.
He's not steeped in an understanding of international development, and as the Tories' most recent point man on the troubled F-35 fighter jet purchase, he had his hands dirtied, say some critics, so he isn't a credible choice to trust with Canada's $5-billion international assistance budget.
But Mr. Fantino and his supporters have pointed out his previous internationally focused policing and emergency management roles, his ability to manage big budgets, and his jobs as the former commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, and chief of the Toronto, York region, and London police services. Plus, he has a caring side.
A law-and-order guy with a soft side
Former Liberal international co-operation critic Glen Pearson could barely believe it when his daughter sent him a text message saying she thought the prime minister had appointed Mr. Fantino as the next CIDA minister.
When it was confirmed, he sat down and wrote a column for Huffington Post Canada blasting the choice.
Mr. Fantino entered Parliament in a fall 2010 byelection win, only months before Mr. Pearson failed to be re-elected as an MP. Their parliamentary relationship was short, but Mr. Pearson wrote in his column that Mr. Fantino has a reputation as "a take-no-prisoners hardliner."
Putting him in charge of international development "will now set Canada's reputation as a compassionate nation back even further."
He predicted difficult days to come at CIDA as development professionals leave for other organizations, "realizing that you can't oversee an accountable and compassionate government agency when a [p]rime [m]inister selects someone more interested in domestic partisanship than international [co-operation]."
CIDA is seen as a "softer" ministry, he later said. "It's supposed to be more of the caring, compassionate side of Canada's influence in the world."
He also remarked: "CIDA needs a woman in the ministry right now," to continue its ongoing maternal, child, and newborn health focus that Prime Minister Stephen Harper championed during Canada's 2010 hosting of the G8 Muskoka summit.
Plus, because CIDA's headquarters is in Quebec, it would have been wise to choose someone who speaks better French. Mr. Fantino is bilingual, in English and Italian—not French.
Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett told the Canadian Press that the procurement file, under Mr. Fantino as associate defence minister, was a "total disaster, in terms of the lack of accountability." She questioned why he was being given a full Cabinet minister's job.
Mr. Fantino, in an interview with the CBC after taking his new post, defended his work on the controversial F-35s, a file that had "hundreds of fingerprints" on it, he said.
He said he would fight for the public purse at CIDA.
"I'll be looking for efficiencies," he told the CBC. "I will be bringing...my own previous value system, with respect to ensuring that every nickel of taxpayer money is spent for the right reasons."
He also pointed out his responsibility for Ontario's aid to the United States after 2005's Hurricane Katrina, and that he travelled to Pakistan as part of the province's recovery aid to it following a 2008 earthquake there.
Mr. Fantino is a "law-and-order guy," said Conservative Senator Bob Runciman. "No question he's a strong leader."
He'll be able to use those skills to inspire CIDA to work at its best and make it a more administratively effective organization, he added.
"If he sees something that's not performing well, he's not going to try and obscure it or try to justify it. He'll do something about it to correct it," said Mr. Runciman.
Development practitioners have said they were hoping for someone with a reputation as a team player who can consult and build consensus.
Despite his authoritative persona, Mr. Runciman said Mr. Fantino has a soft side and has proven his ability to consult with minority groups during his Toronto job. He and Mr. Fantino developed a strong working relationship over the years, including when Mr. Runciman was Ontario's solicitor general and Mr. Fantino was Toronto's police chief.
"He's a caring individual. I know he did a lot of work for kids at-risk while he was in Toronto, raised a lot of money...So that's the side of him that perhaps the public didn't get to see a lot of," said Mr. Runciman.
Long to-do list
While Mr. Fantino's appointment was a surprise for groups like the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, spokesperson Chantal Havard said her umbrella organization is ready to meet with him.
Development NGOs have a list of key priorities for Mr. Fantino.
NGOs accused Ms. Oda of micro-managing, leading to decision-making delays as files piled up on her desk.
"We hope that Mr. Fantino will have more trust in his staff and delegate the decision-making process, both within the agency and also in the field offices and to recipient countries as well," said Ms. Havard.
After years of sporadic thematic and geographic focuses, CIDA finally has a list of focus countries and priority themes, said Mr. McCarney. Although they may not be loved by all, the fact that they're there is crucial, she said.
"The last thing we want is to have [Mr. Fantino] reinvent the wheel, with new priorities, new themes," she said.
Mr. Harper wants to continue with the maternal and child health program, Mr. Fantino told the CBC. He said he didn't see a need to shift away from such recently identified Muskoka priorities.
Mr. Fantino has experience managing large-scale bureaucracies, said James Haga, director of advocacy with Engineers Without Borders Canada. CIDA has been fingered in that category, he added.
Mr. Fantino will have to communicate the agency's results to Canadians and fight for it around the Cabinet table, he said.
"I'm going to wait and see what really comes."
Original Article
Source: embassy mag
Author: Kristen Shane
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