The Canadian involvement in Caribbean America—and by this I automatically include the Hispanic Caribbean, French, and Dutchspeaking places, as well as the English-speaking Commonwealth Caribbean—has followed two traditional streams.

The first is Canada's private sector involvement—substantial Canadian commitments in some countries like Jamaica, Guyana, and the Dominican Republic, typically concentrated in extractive industries and banking. The second is with the public sector, in Commonwealth Caribbean islands, but with a mix of Canadian private/public roles in some important cases.

More diffusely spread, the public sector side includes capital grants and loans made through governments or international banks to develop new private industry, as well as for genuine public sector and social development schemes. The latter would include government-to-government aid, for example, assistance to the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica or the University of Guyana, teacher training programs, CUSO (Canadian University Service Overseas) community work, the missionary role of the various Canadian churches, chiefly the Roman Catholic.