Finance minister says Canada will not pay $1B US if it joins Trump's 'Board of Peace'

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said on Tuesday that Ottawa does not plan to pay the $1-billion US price tag for a permanent seat on U.S. President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" that will oversee the governance and reconstruction of Gaza.

"There [are] a lot of details to be worked out, but one thing which is clear is that Canada is not going to pay if we were to join the Board of Peace," Champagne told reporters Tuesday morning on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Champagne's comments come after Prime Minister Mark Carney — one of the 60 world leaders asked to join the board — accepted the invitation, though on Sunday said his officials hadn't gone through "all the details of the structure, how it's going to work, what the financing is for, etcetera."

"We're still early days [into] that what's going to be the terms of reference of that board, how it's going to operate," Champagne said.

"The prime minister will have to make the final decision when all the facts are known and all the details have been hammered out — whether this is in the best interest of Canada."

Member states on the board — which would be chaired for life by Trump — would be limited to three-year terms unless they pay $1 billion US each to fund the board's activities and earn permanent membership, according to the letter.

WATCH | Trump pitches 'Board of Peace' to world leaders:

Trump invites Carney and others to join ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza

January 19|

Duration 2:13

Prime Minister Mark Carney has accepted U.S. President Donald Trump’s invitation to join his “Board of Peace” proposal, but said his officials have not gone through “all the details of the structure.” A draft of the invitation letter calls for countries to pay $1 billion US for a permanent seat on the board, something a federal official told CBC News that Canada has not been asked for and would not do.

In a post on X, the White House said the permanent membership is offered to partner countries "who demonstrate deep commitment to peace, security, and prosperity."

Asked Tuesday if Ottawa would be interested in a permanent seat, Carney said he's focused on providing cash directly to Palestinians in Gaza.

"We would write cheques and deliver in kind to improve the welfare of the people of Palestine, but we want to see it delivered direct," he said at the World Economic Forum.

A federal official earlier told CBC News that Canada has not been asked to pay at this time and would not do so.

"Canada wants money to have maximum impact," Carney told reporters on Sunday. "We still do not have unimpeded humanitarian aid flows at scale to the people of Gaza."

He called that a "precondition for moving forward on this."

Aside from the top-level board, Trump has appointed various politicians, diplomats and billionaires to two executive committees whose job it will be to guide the process in Gaza. That includes officials from Turkey and Qatar, drawing complaints from Israel, which sees these countries as too critical of its military moves in Gaza and too sympathetic to Hamas.

But the real work is to be done by a team of 15 Palestinian technocrats, unaffiliated with Hamas and screened by Israel’s Mossad spy agency, who have been selected to take over daily operations from the Hamas government.

UAE among 1st countries formally signing on

Other world leaders have exercised some caution as the details have not been finalized. Some countries have expressed concern about a charter attached to the board, one that seems to see Gaza as the first of many conflicts this body would try to resolve, potentially sidelining the United Nations.

On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) accepted the invitation to the board, its Foreign Ministry said, placing Abu Dhabi among the first governments to publicly endorse the initiative.

Hungary has also issued an unequivocal acceptance, while most governments have refrained from public comment, voicing concerns privately about the plan's implications for the UN’s authority.

Last week, the United States announced the launch of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal even as key elements of the first phase — including a complete ceasefire between Israel and Hamas — remain unfulfilled.

The first phase has been shaken by issues, including Israeli airstrikes that have killed hundreds in Gaza, Hamas's failure to retrieve the remains of one last Israeli hostage and Israeli delays in reopening Gaza's border crossing with Egypt.

The second phase will require the U.S. and its mediator partners will need to tackle the even more vexing challenges of disarming Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has refused to give up its arms and deploying an international peacekeeping force.