Foreign Affairs committee  Generally speaking, the size of the humanitarian aid envelope for Africa is constant. The sums it contains can be redistributed, but there is no increase. Recommendations for the current year must be made by the minister. This is his decision, and he bases it on the recommendatio

Foreign Affairs committee  Of course, it's a tool in our tool box. Our assistant deputy minister gave a few examples of activities carried out by our colleague Ambassador Anderson Blanc, who is stationed in Abidjan and works closely with the Quebec Office. However, this outreach is not limited to Quebec.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, we do have a program that will support Canadian companies' expansion abroad.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's CanExport.

Foreign Affairs committee  Very quickly, I would add that—

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for that question; I like it very much. I worked with companies for 20 years, as a sales representative. I kind of belong to the corporation here. The service was established over 125 years ago. Our presence in Africa is relatively small. We have offices in the mos

Foreign Affairs committee  As part of our consultations, we had extensive discussions with the private sector. Ultimately, we want to prepare a document that will be presented to our political leaders. We've received a number of comments, for example about partial market coverage. The Canadian presence of

Foreign Affairs committee  As far as the Sahel is concerned, when we think of Russian interference, we immediately think of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, where the mining sector is of great economic interest. So we're very concerned. We've seen this influence through the Wagner Group, which is now Africa C

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. I recognize this fact, and I've seen a lot of newspaper articles about it. The figures tend to show it. I'll let my colleagues at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada answer that question. That said, we note that many Quebec educational institutions, especially in t

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I'd like to add that, yes, we're not just preparing, we're already implementing measures and working on this matter. I'll give the concrete example of education. Canada works with the provinces. We have consultation mechanisms. We organize forums. Over the past 10 yea

Foreign Affairs committee  As it relates to Cameroon, Canada was indeed asked to intervene as a mediator. That was in 2022. There was a series of meetings held here in Canada between the opposition and government officials. Unfortunately, this mediation exercise went public at the beginning of 2023 and the

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll be brief, Mr. Chair. Last year, Canada allocated $350 million to its trusted multilateral partners, so they could deal with these crises. I'm just talking about humanitarian aid, but there are indeed other channels in terms of conflict prevention and aid—

Foreign Affairs committee  Generally speaking, the trade commissioner service that supports Canadian companies abroad asks those companies to sign a statement of integrity. No services are provided unless the statement is signed. In addition, we expect these companies to adhere to the UN and OECD guiding

Foreign Affairs committee  The numbers go up and down. However, I'd like to point out that Canada has deployed a 250-person contingent to Mali as part of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, or MINUSMA, which is a peacekeeping mission. Unfortunately, Mali has asked

Foreign Affairs committee  Canada is committed to these countries. We have long-standing relations with these countries, especially Mali, where we have been involved for 60 years. To be honest, we have reviewed some of our development programs. For example, when there was a coup, we suspended all direct b