Helping Haiti

Haiti’s Prime Minister responds to Julian Fantino’s concerns.

In an interview Monday, Lamothe agreed with Fantino, saying he had also hoped to see more improvements on the ground. Lamothe is now urging Ottawa to allow his government to assume a bigger role — alongside Canada — in the decisions involved in rebuilding Haiti, particularly on infrastructure projects.

"For any future co-operation, when it’s decided to resume, we will ask the Canadian government to focus on the priorities of the Haitian government," he said by telephone after meeting with Canada’s ambassador to Haiti in the capital of Port-au-Prince. "Basically, the development assistance, because of the perceived weakness of Haitian institutions, was routed directly to NGOs (non-government organizations) and Canadian firms... That weakened our institutions."