Canada plans to drive forward rigorous financial reform and consider moves to draw down global fiscal plans when it hosts Group of 20 and Group of 8 leaders at summits this year, dpa cited the nation's Prime Minister as saying today. While praising the joint action taking by the G20 in dealing with the global economic crisis, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the World Economic Forum in Davos: "The real test of the G20 is that it develops and sustains a sense of shared responsibility" among its members. In his speech, Harper set out the agenda Canada plans to follow when it hosts a summit of the Group of 20 world leading economies in June and a meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) wealthy nations in the middle of the year. Canada at present chairs the G8. However, Harper insisted that any steps towards strengthening financial supervision should not be excessive. "Canada ... believes that financial sector regulation must have the right purposes and must not be excessive," he said. He went on to tell his audience: "Canada will not go down the path of excessive, arbitrary or punitive regulation of its financial sector." Unlike several of its G8 partners, Canada has successfully weathered the financial firestorm that swept the global economy over the last two years. As a result, Harper said he hopes to use the Canadian financial regulatory system as a model for the necessary changes to the world financial structure. A key issue at this year's G20 gatherings is likely to be the timing of moves by governments around the world to wind back the fiscal stimulus plans they launched to shield their economies from recession. "The truth is that despite the G20 efforts only relatively muted economic recovery has so far emerged with only weak job creation," Harper said. He went on to call on governments to stay on the course with regard to their fiscal stimulus packages. But he quickly he added "only for now." At its last meeting in Pittsburgh in September, G20 leaders declared the group of the world's leading industrialized and emerging economies was now the premiere world forum for global economic issues. But Harper told the Davos conference that the G8 would now play an important role in dealing with critical global issues such as peace and security, including fighting terrorism, piracy, climate change and nuclear proliferation. With this in mind, Canada plans to use the G8 to promote the health of women and children in the world's most vulnerable nations.
