Prime Minister Harper will announce later today that Canada has paid off its share of Haiti's debt to the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Canada is the first country to make all of the payments required to cancel the debt Haiti owes to all international financial institutions.

While the Government had already cancelled the debt owed by Haiti to Canada under the Canadian Debt Initiative before the earthquake, following the tragedy Canada led a G20 consensus to forgive debt owed by Haiti to international financial institutions.

Since the earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, Canada has played a leading role in the global response by providing significant humanitarian and reconstruction assistance. Forgiving debt owed by Haiti has been a critical part of this effort.