The President Michel Martelly, met Friday, March 23, at the National Palace, a delegation of Canadian parliamentarians, visiting Haiti since March 19. This delegation, accompanied by the Ambassador of Canada accredited to Port-au-Prince, Henri Paul Normandin, was composed of Laurie Hawn, C.P. (Deputy and Head of Delegation), Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu (Senator), Ms. Céline Hervieux-Payette (Senator), Ms. Paulina Ayala (Deputy), Ms. Joyce Murray (Deputy) and Leif-Erik Aune (Secretary of the Delegation); all members of ParlAmericas, an independent network composed of parliamentarians from 35 countries of the North and South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

During this meeting, the Head of State and the Canadian parliamentarians have discussed various points including :

• A new alignment of activities of cooperation of Canada with the new vision of President Martelly, focusing primarily on Education, Employment and Investment ;

• The strengthening and the intensification of activities of Canadian cooperation agencies that would respond more to this vision ;

• Promote academic relations Haitian-Canadian whose some of which are already very active in the field of urban development and environment ;

• Encourage decentralized cooperation actions through the increase of twinning and of projects of capacity building of municipal governments in Haiti (For example : Municipal Cooperation Program Canada-Haiti should be extended to more municipalities) ;

• Consider a readjustment of fields of activity of the Support Programme and of Strengthening (PARGEP), so that interventions affect other levels of government such as local authorities. (Training at the level of City Halls, of CASECS and ASECS).

The President of the Republic took the opportunity to extend, on behalf of the Haitian people, his thanks to the Government and people of Canada for their support to Haiti in various fields. The Canadian Cooperation is the second largest in Haiti after the United States.

The diplomatic relations between the Republic of Haiti and Canada was officially established in 1954. The President Martelly has taken all steps to strengthen, during his tenure, the links between Haiti and Canada. Frantz Liautaud, whose appointment as Ambassador of Haiti in Canada was recently ratified by the Haitian Parliament, will soon submit his credentials to the Canadian Government.

SL/ HaitiLibre