OTTAWA

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was unable to attend G-20 meetings Friday and Saturday after becoming ill after arriving in Russia.

"Unfortunately, minister Flaherty upon arriving in Moscow fell ill - it may have been stomach flu - and that restricted his ability to participate in the meeting," said his spokesperson Kathleen Perchaluk. "The minister remains abreast of developments and welcomes progress made at the meeting."

Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz and senior Finance Department official Jean Boivin participated in G-20 discussions and stood in for Flaherty during a teleconference call with journalists Saturday.

Cash-strapped G-20 countries talked about a range of economic issues facing the global economy and unanimously endorsed a road map to address tax avoidance strategies used by some multinational corporations.

While entirely legal, corporations often shop around and use loopholes to pay as little tax as possible to fatten their bottom lines.

Boivin, an associate deputy minister, said it would take upwards of two years for Canada and its G-20 partners to adopt the necessary legislative changes to make corporations pay more.

Canada has already implemented some measures to find large-scale tax cheats, including those with assets hidden offshore.

Flaherty has been finance minister since 2006 and retained the job last week after Prime Minister Stephen Harper shuffled his cabinet.

Flaherty said he wanted to stay put to honour his pledge to erase the deficit before the next election in 2015.

He has been suffering from a rare skin condition that sometimes leaves him bloated because of the medication used to treat the disease.