Canada has pledged an additional $12 million to help relief efforts in Burma, hours after the ruling junta announced it will now allow all foreign aid workers into the country.
Bev Oda, the minister of International Co-operation, made the aid announcement in Toronto on Friday.
"This additional support will help the United Nations, as well as the Canadian and international organizations that are working tirelessly to reach the people most affected by the devastation of Cyclone Nargis," said Oda.
Shortly after the disaster, which struck Burma on May 2-3, Canada pledged $2 million in aid -- a figure that was criticized as being too low.
Ottawa then announced it would match private donations made by Canadians to aid groups.
"Canada remains committed to responding to humanitarian crisis and we have the mechanisms in place to do so effectively and expeditiously," said Oda.
Bernier bungles plane promise
Earlier this week, Canadian officials scrambled to rent a high-priced Russian plane after a promise by Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier could not be kept.
Bernier, in Rome on Wednesday, promised Canada would use one of its new C-17 cargo planes to airlift World Food Program helicopters to Burma.
"Canada is there to help the people of Burma and we have a C-17 available," Bernier told reporters following a meeting with the director of the WFP. "We'll do this flight as quickly as possible."
But, following his announcement, officials realized that all four of the new planes were not immediately available so the government paid $900,000 to rent the Russian replacement.
The error was the most recent in a string of events that have drawn less-than-desirable attention to both Bernier's personal life and his performance as a minister. His aides claimed he'd been given faulty information but some opposition MPs said Bernier should lose his job.
"We can't really afford this kind of incompetence to be on show on the international stage," NDP Leader Jack Layton said Friday.
Amid speculation about a summer cabinet shuffle, some are singling out Bernier as a leading candidate for demotion.
"It's embarrassing for him, it's embarrassing for the country and it speaks to the growing sense that the minister simply isn't up to the job," noted Liberal MP Bob Rae.
Others wanted to know why there were no planes available. The Conservatives recently paid $3.5 billion for four C-17s so they would no longer have to charter cargo aircraft during emergencies.
While one is being used in Afghanistan, the three others are all grounded for maintenance, including one that broke down in Thailand after dropping off Red Cross emergency shelters destined for Burma.
Burma allows aid workers
Earlier Friday, Burma's most powerful figure, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and agreed to allow "all aid workers" into the country.
"I had a very good meeting with Senior General Than Shwe and particularly on the aid workers. He has agreed to allow all the aid workers (into Burma), regardless of nationality,'' Ban told reporters.
Ban said he viewed the agreement as a breakthrough.
Meanwhile, a senior UN official present at the meeting said Than Shwe also agreed to let foreigners work in the hardest-hit region of the country, the Irrawaddy delta.
So far, that region has been virtually off-limits to foreign workers.
"He (Ban) saw no reason why that should not happen, as long as they are genuine humanitarian workers and it was clear as to what they were going to be doing,'' the official, who requested anonymity, told The Associated Press.
"We've got to turn that into reality now."
In recent days, the junta has been allowing access to more foreign aid workers but most have been confined to Rangoon -- the country's largest city.
"I urged him that it would be crucially important for him to allow aid workers as swiftly as possible and all these aid relief items also be delivered to the needy people as soon as possible,'' Ban said.
Despite the decision to allow aid workers, Burma still refuses to grant entry to American, French and British military ships that have been waiting in sight of the Burmese coast for more than a week.
The ships are loaded with supplies and could act as a base for helicopters trying to access remote areas.
Cyclone Nargis killed at least 78,000 people, inflicting at least $11 million in economic damage.
Another 56,000 are missing and some 2.5 million survivors are at risk of disease, starvation and exposure to monsoon rains. The UN says only about 25 per cent of those affected have received any sort of aid.
With files from The Associated Press and a report by Roger Smith
