Consider These Facts:

• The budget for the UN's core functions the Secretariat operations in New York, Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna and five Regional Commissions is $1.74 billion a year. This is approximately 1% of the Canadian federal budget, 4 % of New York City's annual budget, and only slightly higher than the Royal Bank’s 1996 profit of $1.43 billion.
• Canada’s share of the UN's regular budget in 1994 was $41.7 million the equivalent of approximately $1.20 per Canadian.
• The UN has no army. Governments voluntarily supply troops and other personnel to halt conflicts that threaten peace and security and/or to oversee truce arrangements. The Member States on the Security Council, including China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA not the Secretary General decide when and where to deploy peace keeping troops. Canada has served five terms -- 10 years -- on the Security Council, and is vying for another term in 1999-2000.
• The New York Headquarters of the UN requires the services of 4,831 people. In comparison, Metro Toronto has approximately 5,000 police officers, and the Swedish capital of Stockholm has 60,000 municipal employees.
• 53,589 people work in the entire UN system worldwide, which includes the Secretariat and 25 other organizations such as UNICEF, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Three times as many people work for McDonald's, while Disney World and Disneyland employ 50,000.
• Some 1,700 Canadians are employed by the UN system. Canadians also currently hold the top posts in the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
• Eighty per cent of the work of the UN system is devoted to helping developing countries build the capacity to help themselves. This includes promoting and protecting democracy and human rights; saving children from starvation and disease; providing relief assistance to refugees and disaster victims; countering global crime, drugs and disease; and assisting countries devastated by war and the long term threat of land mines.
• The United Nations and its Funds and Programmes UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and WFP have $6.1 billion a year to spend on economic and social development, which is used to assist countries in such areas as population policies, children, agriculture, food distribution, etc. This is the equivalent of 80 cents per human being. In 1994, the world's governments spent about $1.04 trillion in military expenditures the equivalent of $179 per human being.
• The total cost of all UN peace keeping operations in 1995 in the former Yugoslavia and 13 other places was $4 billion. It is the equivalent of 1.1 per cent of the US military budget and less than 0.3 per cent of worldwide military spending. The overall peace keeping budget was forecast to shrink by half in 1996, largely because of the end of most operations in the former Yugoslavia.
• Canada’s contribution to the UN peace-keeping budget in 1994, $127.7 million, is less than one quarter of the cost to operate the Montreal Police Department. Canada’s share of the UN peace-keeping budget fell from 3.125% in 1994 to 3.083% in 1995.
• Member States share the risks of maintaining peace and security. Canada has played a central role in UN peace-keeping, which was initiated by Canadian Nobel Peace Prize winner Lester B. Pearson. More than 100,000 Canadians have served as peace-keepers since 1956, involved in nearly all peace-keeping and observer operations initiated in that period.
• Since 1945, nearly 1,300 UN peace-keepers have died in the performance of their duties. Over 100 Canadians have sacrificed their lives to bring peace to the world.
• Canadians’ expertise in organizing and monitoring elections -- under the UN -- in countries including Cambodia, Namibia, and El Salvador helped build peace and save lives around the world.
• The UN Secretariat operates on a zero-growth basis. The $3.48 billion budget for the next two years $1.74 billion a year represents over $250 million in savings, which will be achieved through efficiency gains and the elimination of 1,000 staff positions 10 per cent of the Secretariat.
• Ten per cent of the UN Secretariat staff has already been cut since 1988, and restructuring and streamlining continue. One of the former Secretary General's first actions after taking office in 1992 was to cut top posts by 25 per cent. Tough new standards have been set for staff performance. UN staff members have about one third of their salaries deducted in lieu of taxes.
• An Office of Internal Oversight, established in 1994, is pursuing its mandate of promoting more effective and efficient management, and eliminating waste, fraud and mismanagement. It includes a special UN investigative unit and a hotline.
• The total operating expenses for the entire UN system including the World Bank, IMF, and all the UN funds, programmes, and specialized agencies come to $24.3 billion a year. This is less than the annual revenue of a major corporation like Dow Chemical, which took in more than $26.7 billion in 1994.
• The top eight contributors to the UN are the USA (25%); Japan (15.4%); Germany (9%); France (6.4%); the United Kingdom (5.3%); Italy (5.2%); Russia (4.5%); and Canada (3.1%). Collectively, they account for more than 73% of the regular UN budget.
• Americans express concern about the percentage of the UN budget they are assessed (25%) but they overlook the fact that the UN, its agencies and diplomatic and consular corps contribute $3.2 billion a year to the economy of the New York City area alone (according to former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani). That has generated 30,600 jobs, yeilding $1.2 billion in annual earnings.
• Canada is proud to be among those countries that pay their assessed dues, in full and on time, to the UN every year.
• In addition to establishing international standards, promoting exports, and protecting copyrights, the UN directly contributed to business by spending about $5 billion in the procurement of goods and services in 1995. Canadian business is the 9th largest supplier of goods and services to the UN, with total sales over $138 million. There is great potential for Canadian business to increase their profit through sales to the UN.