The probe into the AIIB includes analyzing the bank’s investments, governance, and management frameworks, says Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
The headquarters of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing, China, July 27, 2020. (REUTERS/Tingshu Wang)
By Andrew Chen
Canada is expanding its probe into the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) following warnings about Beijing’s control within the institution. While the federal government is also indefinitely freezing its participation in the organization, the Opposition Tories insist that the government should pull its investment out of the bank altogether.
“In consultation with some of our closest international partners, Canada is expanding its review of the AIIB,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced in a Dec. 8 statement.
“While our engagement with our partners continues, Canada’s participation in the AIIB will remain indefinitely suspended.”
The expanded review will encompass three key aspects. One is to analyze the AIIB’s investments, governance, and management frameworks and to assess if decision-making and project selection at the bank require further enhancement.
Another is to examine the effectiveness and sufficiency of existing environmental and social governance safeguards at the bank, particularly regarding issues such as forced labour, complaints handling, and environmental impacts.
Additionally, the feds will assess the AIIB’s work culture, governance reforms, and management response in relation to the concerns raised in recent months.
Ms. Freeland said the federal government had “immediately halted all government led-activity” at the Beijing-based Chinese-led bank based on her instruction on June 14. The decision came the same day following the abrupt resignation of Bob Pickard, a Canadian public relations executive who had served as the AIIB’s global communications director since March 2022.
In a post on the social media platform X earlier that day, Mr. Pickard described the bank as a “cesspool” infiltrated by the Chinese Communist Party.
The AIIB, founded in 2016, is a multilateral development bank seen as Beijing’s response to the Western-led World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
Canada applied to join and was accepted in March 2017, becoming the bank’s first North American member. It officially joined the AIIB in March 2018 and proceeded to ratify and operationalize its membership by committing approximately $256 million to acquiring shares in the bank over five years. Including Canada, the bank currently has 109 approved members worldwide.
The Opposition Conservatives have long called on Ottawa to divest its shares in the AIIB. On Oct. 23, MPs voted in favour of a motion asking the House of Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations to invite Ms. Freeland to appear as a witness in the committee’s examination of “Canada’s freeze in government-led activity” with the AIIB.
In her latest announcement, Ms. Freeland said her department has been working with federal partners, including Canada’s national security agencies, to conduct a review of both the allegations raised by Mr. Pickard and Canada’s involvement in the AIIB.
“To date, this internal review has included consultations with many of Canada’s closest partners who are also members of the Bank,” Ms. Freeland said.
“In October, senior Canadian officials discussed this work with counterparts from Australia, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom at a meeting on the margins of the 2023 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund held in Marrakech, Morocco,” she added.