Canada to pledge up to $200 million to Iraq fundraising conference: sources

THE CANADIAN PRESS

JULY 19, 2016 10:03

OTTAWA – Canada is to pledge up to $200 million in new money to help Iraq’s economy during a major conference in Washington on Wednesday.

Sources tell The Canadian Press that “up to” that amount will be pledged through the World Bank to help Iraq’s government implement economic reforms.

The Canadian pledge is over and above the $1.6 billion over three years that the Trudeau government announced in February as part of its reconfigured mission to battle the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Canada is co-hosting the event in Washington with the United States, Germany and Japan, in an attempt to raise funds to help battle ISIL in Iraq, stabilize its government and ease humanitarian suffering.

The U.S. State Department says extra money is urgently needed because the United Nations Iraq Humanitarian Response Plan of US$861 million is only 36 per cent funded.

Canada will also give more details on how $158 million of the previously announced $1.6 billion will be spent.

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