Canada is “deeply concerned” concerning the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the USA’ lead foreign aid agency, federal government officials say amid growing alarm concerning the impact to global charities and aid programs.
The administration said this week it’s pulling all employees on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) off the job and out of the sphere globally by the top of Friday unless they’re deemed essential.
The agency’s website was replaced with that removal notice on Monday, its social media accounts are down, and all funding has been frozen as U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies goal what they call wasteful spending by many USAID programs.
USAID works with several international partners, including Canada, to reply to humanitarian crises and support vulnerable populations worldwide, a spokesperson for International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen said in an emailed statement to Global News.
“Canada is deeply concerned by the U.S. administration’s decision to shut down USAID,” the spokesperson said.
“The lack of USAID’s leadership and resources represents a dangerous retreat that risks a long time of progress in fighting inequality, starvation, pandemics, and authoritarianism. This decision will hit hardest for many who rely on aid for food security, health care, and emergency relief.”
The U.S. is the world’s largest humanitarian donor by far.
It spends lower than one per cent of its budget on foreign assistance, a smaller share than several European countries. Canada also spends lower than one per cent of its GDP on foreign aid.
USAID funds projects in some 120 countries aimed toward fighting epidemics, educating children, providing clean water and supporting other areas of development.
But Trump and allies like Elon Musk have also zeroed in on programs the agency funds that promote diversity and inclusion, particularly for LGBTQ2+ people and gender equality.
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Canada has partnered with USAID on several projects over the past decade, including water management in Peru and humanitarian relief in Gaza and the West Bank. Lots of the projects listed in an internet partner profile noted gender equality as a “significant” end result or goal, in step with Canada’s stated priorities for foreign aid.
“Canada has been clear — foreign aid is just not a handout, it’s an investment in the security, security, and well-being of Canadians and communities around the globe,” the spokesperson for Hussen’s office said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been named the acting director of USAID, has defended the agency’s shutdown and said foreign aid will proceed after a “from the underside up” review.
“This is just not about ending foreign aid. It’s about structuring it in a way that furthers the national interest of the USA,” Rubio told reporters Wednesday in Guatemala City.
Democratic lawmakers have protested outside USAID’s shuttered Washington offices this week, calling the actions spearheaded by Musk “illegal” and a “coup.”
Aid community ‘scrambling,’ Canadian charity says
The USAID notice said essential personnel “accountable for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs” would be told by Thursday afternoon in the event that they can be kept on.
The mass removal of 1000’s of staffers would doom billions of dollars in international projects, including security assistance for Ukraine and other countries, in addition to development work for clean water, job training and education, including for schoolgirls under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
The shutdown means health programs — like those credited with helping end polio and smallpox epidemics and an acclaimed HIV/AIDS program, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), that saved greater than 20 million lives in Africa — have already got stopped.
So have monitoring and deployments of rapid-response teams for contagious diseases, similar to an Ebola outbreak in Uganda.
A whole bunch of tens of millions of dollars of food and drugs already delivered by U.S. corporations are sitting in ports due to the administration’s sudden shutdown of the agency.
Lauren Ravon, the manager director of Oxfam Canada, told Global News the international aid community is “scrambling” to remain afloat. Oxfam doesn’t receive USAID funding directly but partners with organizations that do.
“There isn’t a rustic or a community on this planet that hasn’t had some level of support from USAID,” she said, from health-care systems to civil society and refugee aid programs.
Ravon said Oxfam, which focuses on promoting women’s rights and sexual and reproductive freedom around the globe, is anxious those initiatives will suffer even when USAID returns in a more limited capability.
Hussen’s office said Canada will proceed its foreign aid missions without U.S. government partners.
“Our government is not going to back down from its international commitments,” it said. “Global challenges demand collective motion, and we’ll proceed to do our part by forging recent partnerships that support peace, security, and prosperity for all.”
Ravon said filling the gap left by USAID is “almost insurmountable.”
“The world has been facing a record levels of humanitarian crises, so the humanitarian system as an entire was already overstretched,” she said. “Having the underside fall out has huge implications.”
—With files from the Associated Press
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
