Mr. Chairman, thank you.
Elissa, it's good to see you again, under different circumstances.
I was struck by two points you made about engagement, having the right people and the right tools. Clearly, under the report the government made in March of this year, priority two was about increasing the capacity-building to deliver core service, economic development, etc.
You didn't raise this, but I will ask you if you are aware of it. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities was tentatively proposed to go to Afghanistan at the end of June, and the purpose was to look at the ability to develop certain programs of capacity-building at the village level, to do very much what this says here. Now they're not going, for whatever reasons, whether they be political, financial, whatever. But to me that is a partner. I raised this with USAID a month or two ago. To me, that is a critical partner. If you want to talk about capacity-building, and I'm a bit biased as a former president, but I can tell you, I know the projects we've done around the world, and usually we're called in for the very purpose—particularly in areas where there is no infrastructure whatsoever—of trying to develop the kind of work that we as Canadians, regardless of party, support.
I just wondered if you could first comment on that and what role, if any, you would suggest we should be playing to move that particular issue along.