Skip to main content
Open this photo in gallery:

International Development Minister Maryam Monsef’s office said Canada made a promise to eradicate polio 'to the end.'Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

Polio-eradication advocates are calling on the Trudeau government to make a long-term funding commitment to support the global elimination of the infectious disease before Canadian foreign aid for the effort ends next year.

The call for action is part of a larger effort by dozens of non-governmental organizations that are asking Canada to set aside $1.4-billion a year until 2030 to support a full spectrum of international women and children’s health and rights initiatives, such as polio vaccines, reproductive health and family-planning services. The campaign, known as the Thrive Agenda, urges the government to make the commitment soon, as Canadian funding for the sector is set to expire in 2020.

The number of polio cases has decreased by more than 99 per cent since 1988 but it is still endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. Global Citizen, one of the organizations supporting the Thrive Agenda, said Canada’s continued support for the fight against polio is crucial to achieving total eradication.

“Canada’s commitments … have made a significant impact but then also when we get to that point where we are 99-per cent-eradicated, there’s going to be other countries and institutions that say, ‘We’re close, that’s good enough,’ and that’s the danger,” said Jonah Kanter, Global Citizen’s policy and government affairs manager in Canada.

“We want Canada to maintain its leadership on this file.”

Canada has contributed more than $600-million to polio-eradication efforts since 2000, according to the Global Affairs Department. That funding includes significant support for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a public-private partnership between governments, the World Health Organization (WHO), Unicef, Rotary International, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The former Conservative government put up $250-million for the initiative from 2013 to 2018, which was followed up by an additional $100-million under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017. Mr. Kanter said the Canadian funding has helped provide 18 million polio vaccines globally, including vaccinations for children in some of the most remote parts of the world.

“The issue of polio eradication has had cross-party support over the decade," Mr. Kanter said. “It’s always been seen as a story that Canada has been a part of."

International Development Minister Maryam Monsef’s office said Canada made a promise to eradicate polio “to the end.”

“We will be there for the last mile. We will make funding decisions post-2020 in due time,” Ms. Monsef’s chief of staff, Geoffroi Montpetit, said in an e-mail on Tuesday.

Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system. It can cause total paralysis within a matter of hours. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis and, of those paralyzed, about 5 per cent to 10 per cent die when their breathing muscles become immobilized. The WHO says failure to eradicate polio from the last remaining countries could result in as many as 200,000 new global cases every year within a decade.

Ramesh Ferris was born in India in 1979 and contracted polio when he was six months old, leaving his legs paralyzed. With a lack of rehabilitation options, his birth mother put him up for adoption and he was adopted by a Canadian family in the Yukon as a toddler.

Mr. Ferris, who lives in Whitehorse, now uses a leg brace and two crutches to walk. He encouraged Canadians to get vaccinated for polio and other preventable diseases, and reach out to their member of Parliament to demand their government make post-2020 commitments to the eradication of polio.

“We are so close to eradicating the second disease in human history and that will not only be the world’s history, it’ll be Canada’s legacy, that we were part of ending polio and saving children around the world from what I have had to live with."

Interact with The Globe