Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I will just make a few brief comments. I would note, in relation to my colleague on the free trade agreement with Colombia, that we see a direct linkage with our interest from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade with regard to peace building and human rights. That is, as she said, we see the new opportunities that such an agreement provides in the effort to reduce poverty and to be able to provide alternative employment.
As you know, Canada's engagement in Colombia has been promoting not only prosperity but strengthening peace-building efforts and respect for human rights. Indeed, peace building and human rights have long been a cornerstone of Canada's engagement with that country. Earlier representatives from the department have told you about the programming we have been doing in the country through our Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force, some $14.5 million since the year 2005, $5 million this year alone, in an effort to help the demobilization and the reintegration of paramilitaries as well as youth. As well, CIDA, our partner, has been devoting much more in resources to Colombia, some $64 million in the last five years. This has increasingly been focused on children and women, their rights and their protection, and seeking efforts to alleviate their poverty and to help in the reintegration of internally displaced people. Colombia continues to be one of the highest source countries of internally displaced.
I want to talk to you a little bit about the dialogue we've been having on human rights and to reassure you that it has been growing over the past few years. I'll go back just a few months, in fact, to the fact that President Uribe came to this very committee. He was visiting Canada at the Conference of Montreal, and he came and testified here. Not only did he testify, he asked that you open the committee to non-governmental organizations and to civil societies. I just want to say that was an important demonstration, but it's one that we're seeing on a daily basis.
Our access to the highest levels of the Colombian government continues to be extremely open. We were given, after a meeting by Minister Kent, an agreement that we would start a formal dialogue on human rights, and that commitment was made in July this year when my colleague, Jamie Lambert, who has testified here before you, had very senior-level discussions in a very frank and open manner. Just this week, the national security advisor, Marie-Lucie Morin, has been in Colombia for two and a half days. She has met very senior officials, not only in security areas but including the president. President Uribe again made himself available. They had a very deep, very involved discussion on human rights in which he continued to give reassurances and reiterate his commitment to his country's adherence to international standards.
We've said before in this committee that obviously Colombia faces amazing challenges, but we've also seen over the past five to seven years very deep progress in all the indicators, from poverty to security, to extrajudicial killings. The trend lines have been positive in all of those areas, but obviously there continue to be challenges.
I would just close by saying, perhaps no more eloquently than one of your own members, Mr. Scott Brison, who visited Colombia recently--