A parliamentary report recommends Prime Minister Jean Chretien campaign to make G-8 summits less expensive, more accountable and more transparent with a full listing of costs and a so-called "performance report card."
"Canada should take the lead in advocating such directions to its G-8 partners," said the report, issued Tuesday in Ottawa by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
The report is the result of cross-Canada hearings by three members of the committee that drew presentations from academics and public policy groups but elicited little public input.
Keith Martin, a Canadian Alliance member of the committee, said he's skeptical any of the 20 recommendations will be adopted, describing it as a public relations exercise destined to become "a doorstop."
The 118-page report makes recommendations on many areas of Canada's G-8 activities and international relations, but the focus is on making annual G-8 meetings more open and involving a broader number of players, including the public.
The committee recommends leaders attending the G-8 summit in Kananaskis June 26 and 27 "acknowledge the urgent need for coherent, broadly based multilateral approaches to global reform."
The report calls for the legislatures of the G-8 nations -- Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan and Russia -- to play a much larger role in summits.
"The committee urges the government to support the idea of holding an inaugural meeting of G-8 parliamentarians in connection with the Kananaskis summit leading to the subsequent setting up of a G-8 interparliamentary group that would be invited to submit recommendations directly to future summits," said the report.
The report also recommends measures addressing the planned themes of Kananaskis -- terrorism, continued economic growth and, in particular, revitalizing poor African nations. The African initiatives include G-8 nations dropping tariff and non-tariff barriers to African exports and increasing financial development assistance to the continent's poorest nations.
Mike O'Shaughnessy, a spokesman for the Canadian G-8 organizers, said the report that was initiated by Chretien will be considered by the prime minister but he could not say whether any of the recommendations will be adopted.
He added the government intends to provide a full accounting of the summit's costs.
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