Good evening, everyone.

I’m very pleased to be here tonight with Minister Joly.

This week’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles has been very productive. We are all united around shared values, more determined than ever to tackle our common challenges.

We had many leaders, many meetings with leaders from our hemisphere, including bilateral meetings with President Biden and Speaker Pelosi and members of Congress, as well as with President Fernandez of Argentina, President Abinader of the Dominican Republic, Prime Minister Holness of Jamaica, Prime Minister Mottley of Barbados, Prime Minister Davis of The Bahamas and President Castillo of Peru.

We discussed trade and economic growth, promoting and protecting democracy, climate action, gender equality, LGBTQ rights and the rights of indigenous people. We need to deliver for people. We need to make sure they see themselves in the progress we make. This is something we talked about during the roundtable I hosted with progressive leaders on Wednesday with Barbados, Belize, Chile, Ecuador and Jamaica. We’re continuing our work to eradicate poverty, strengthen the middle class, address food shortages, and grow truly equitable economies, ones that are diverse with true gender equality... true gender and racial equity and equality.

This week, we also discussed challenges like global inflation. Everyone agrees that we need to do more to make life more affordable for our citizens. It starts with strong, inclusive institutions that underpin our work to tackle the many challenges we face. We can’t let authoritarian forces undermine our democracies or institutions, including online. We were very clear that Canada is committed to help safeguard democracy in the digital age and will continue to stand up for human rights, media freedom and equality, just like we will continue to stand up for Ukraine while making sure Russia is held accountable. We’re working with partners throughout the Americas to support Ukrainians who have been displaced.

We are also doing our part to address the migration crisis. Canada is committed to increasing its promotion and recruitment efforts related to Francophone immigration programs, to welcoming more than 50,000 agricultural workers from Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean in 2022.

We will also increase refugee resettlement from the Americas and welcome 4,000 additional individuals by 2028. Canada has one of the most progressive, generous, and welcoming immigration policies in the world and we continue to welcome hundreds of thousands of people from all over the globe. We’re committed to continue working with partners to address the migration crisis and we fully endorse the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection.

At this Summit, Canada has mobilized our partners to work together on the biggest challenges we face, which includes on climate action. We worked with Barbados and other countries on the need for accessible financing to help vulnerable middle-income island states prepare and respond to the effects of climate change.

With Chili, we co-sponsored a declaration that brings countries together to protect the Pacific Ocean. Yesterday, we teamed up with California to protect nature, stimulate investment in clean technologies, and prevent single-use plastics from ending up in our oceans.

We know there’s more work to be done on our shared priorities. This week, we continued to make progress. We’re announcing investments of over $145 million on different initiatives across the Americas. This includes initiatives on fighting climate change, on promoting gender equality, on addressing irregular migration, and on strengthening our democracies and our health systems.

Together, we’re working hard to build a better future for everyone.

The hemisphere, as always, can count on Canada to be there as a partner.

Thank you very much.