I don't know whether that would be effective. Actually, it would be just as effective as a parliamentary committee can be. I believe a parliamentary committee still has a strong voice in democracy. You report on your activities in Parliament and you make recommendations.
I know that other embassies will also be closing, but I don't know which ones. The embassies in Guinea and Gabon were closed two or three years ago, and still others were closed last week. If as many embassies again were to close—I don't know whether it's the same number—it would be absolutely terrible. With seven or eight embassies on the continent, it would no longer be possible to claim that Canada is interested in Africa. Let's get serious. In my opinion, we would be remiss in our duty as a G-8 country. Here we are talking about the continent that has the largest proportion of poor and 60% of the least developed countries. We should have a presence in most of those countries.
I said earlier that Canada has a presence in 13 Latin American countries. The fact is that there are three times more officers there than in Africa. And yet, there are 700 million people living in sub-Saharan Africa. That position is not defensible, particularly when we see the other G-8 countries increasing their contribution. If they were all cutting back, I could understand that we would be inclined to do the same, but that is not the case. I do not think the $1 billion given a few weeks ago by the G-8 countries will be enough for Africa to solve its problems.