Foreign Affairs committee  I would just like to add one last word. while the chair isn't looking at me. I do not agree with you when you say that everything is fine. If everything were fine, we would not be doing what we are doing today. Things don't always work perfectly. I think the effort of the mer

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm not surprised. I thought it was going to come at one point in time. Definitely, that higher council made recommendations five or six years ago for policy coherence, for more strategic thinking, and every time we were thinking, wouldn't it be nice if those three were meeting e

Foreign Affairs committee  Certainly. I like CIDA, and I have worked very closely with CIDA in the last couple of years. But I think, as Mr. Robertson says, we must ensure they work very closely together, day and night, and at breakfast and in the breaks. The integration process will be very important.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think the benefits will be that aid will be more in keeping with the general policy of the government, which some people question is not always clear. That will be clearer. One of the things that people don't know is that 80% of our business with Africa is in the knowledge bu

Foreign Affairs committee  I want to say a couple of things about that. The first one is that, as I said in my exposé, you're going to have two ministers responsible for it now. They will have to talk the same language, because they're going to be in trouble if they don't. Second, ambassadors will be in

Foreign Affairs committee  Foreign affairs and development, so there's nothing wrong here.

Foreign Affairs committee  The nature of your committee is exactly that, right?

Foreign Affairs committee  We saw that it goes together, right?

Foreign Affairs committee  First of all, I want to make sure that the record is straight here. In the last 12 to 18 months, there's been a lot of emphasis by the government in Africa. I have to admit that. I remember three years ago, I was criticizing us for not being there enough. Without announcements, b

Foreign Affairs committee  Yesterday, I was at another debate. There were 200 people, and I had to defend the merger. It was a MUN debate at the University of Ottawa. I realize that NGOs are not very much in favour of a merger, but if you were to ask me what the biggest concern of the 200 Canadians in the

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. I have a short comment. It's very interesting that you ask that question, because I was the one to oversee, to a certain extent, the trade move from Industry Canada. I was the director general of personnel, and I worked with Tony Eyton for at least two years on all of that

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you very much for having invited us. The Canadian Council on Africa, for those who don't know, was created about 12 years ago. We recruit members who have a clear common objective: economic development in Africa. These members are l

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't know if you asked the question to both of us, but I'm willing to give my opinion. I don't think we can do that, sir. I think that Canada is a rich country, one of the best in the world. We have responsibilities and we have no choice. We have to involve ourselves where hu

Foreign Affairs committee  I think they do, but not all of them will play. The U.S. is already there helping. Canada is helping. Not all UN, EU countries will.

Foreign Affairs committee  As I said to your colleague on the other side, it all depends on how the conflict evolves. Canada can play a role because it has played a role in peacekeeping in the past. The principles enunciated by the minister are very clear. We do not want to have another Afghanistan if we c