OTTAWA: The Canadian government, which last week announced 32 million dollars for victims of Pakistan's historic floods, said Sunday it would give more aid by matching the amount donated by its citizens.
“The Canadians have always been ready to come to the assistance of people in need and in order to support their generosity, we will be giving a contribution equivalent to their contribution,” House of Common leader John Baird said.
“This will be additional financial assistance, apart from the 33 million (Canadian, 32 million US dollars) already announced,” said Baird.
“It will equal the contributions made to Canadian registered charitable organizations between August 2nd and September 12th,” he said, adding that there was no ceiling on the final amount of aid.
“We have not placed a dollar limit on the amount of funds that we will provide through this important program,” Baird said.
“When these things happen around the world, Canadians are very generous people and they want to support the effort and if the announcement we make today can help encourage individual Canadians to match the support given by the government, we hope that will be the case.” The aid announcement came as Pakistani authorities evacuated tens of thousands from areas in the south of the country on Sunday, following a month of flooding that has killed 1,500 people and affected up to 20 million nationwide. – AFP
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