Harper, Flaherty, Carney meet ahead of G20 summit

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Vancouver Sun


  Sept 27, 2011

Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, left, and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will meet with the prime minister Tuesday ahead of a G20 summit in France this fall.Photograph by: FRED DUFOUR, AFP/Getty Images





OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is to meet with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney on Tuesday to prepare for a key international summit later this fall on the economy.

The gathering in Harper's office on Parliament Hill comes after Flaherty and Carney attended meetings with their international counterparts last week in Washington.



They will brief Harper on those sessions, as he plans for a crucial gathering of G20 leaders in Cannes, France, in early November.

Harper is calling for a co-ordinated international approach to deal with the looming global economic storm.

Andrew MacDougall, Harper's associate director of communications, said Tuesday morning the G20 meeting in France is the "culmination" of earlier meetings, such as the ones held last week by finance ministers and central bank governors.

"So today will be a chance for Governor Carney and Minister Flaherty to brief the prime minister about the meetings themselves — the discussions that occurred, and the progress that is being made in the run-up to the G20 meeting in Cannes."

MacDougall said a key item that lies ahead for world leaders is the development of a co-ordinated "framework for strong, sustainable balanced growth."

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"There are co-ordinated actions that countries need to take. Whether it's deficit countries in some of the developed economies meeting their targets that were laid out in Toronto (at the G20 summit in 2010) in terms of capping debts and deficits. Or some of the surplus countries (having) to stimulate demand in their economies to boost global growth — co-ordinated action, but that doesn't mean all countries have to take the same action. They have to work together to restore global growth."




Last week, during speeches in the Canadian Parliament, Harper joined with British Prime Minister David Cameron in issuing gloomy warnings that the world could be on the cusp of another recession unless key nations adopt some necessary economic measures.


Both men used stark language to describe the economic consequences that will occur unless world leaders take decisive, but tough action to deal with the debt crisis that threatens to turn economic recovery back into full-scale recession.




As part of their campaign to up the ante, they joined leaders from Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, and South Korea in sending an open letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current chair of the G20.




In the strongly worded letter, they called for strong co-ordinated action at the G20 meeting in Cannes to ensure global economic stability — specifically by reducing debt levels in the eurozone that are identified in the letter as a significant threat to the world economy.




"The confidence of citizens, businesses, and markets has been damaged due to the lack of visible will," they wrote. "This in itself is holding back the recovery."




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