It has been unusual this year. I have been travelling a lot more than I normally do, but there seems to be a thirst internationally for the experience of Canada.
I was in Nigeria this summer. They just passed a law and wanted advice on implementation. I was invited there by the Canadian high commissioner in Nigeria.
I also attended the inaugural meeting in Washington of the open government partnership. I'll speak a little bit about that because it's also a symptom of the thirst internationally.
I was also in Mexico for its national transparency week, at the invitation of the commissioners there. Mexico is, in some ways, legislatively and technologically advanced, but they still have a lot to learn on the implementation side. Canada was the guest of honour there this year.
I've also been invited by the Carter Centre to assist in a couple of weeks with China's new regulation.
The open government partnership, which the Canadian government has decided to join, is an excellent initiative. The reason is that there are many countries around the world now who are wanting to explore transparency, not only in legislation but also in proactive disclosure and in implementation. And Canada can really provide a lot of leadership and expertise. The government can do that; the Treasury Board Secretariat has been implementing access to information in Canada for almost 30 years.
My personal view is that there is a worldwide benefit from increasing transparency, because it decreases corruption. There is always a clear and direct link, a correlation, between a reduction in corruption and an increase in transparency.
Canada is now looking to expand its trade with some of these countries. Brazil needs to have a law; they're actually coming to my office in two weeks to get assistance. Honduras, Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, all of these countries are developing their transparency agendas, and Canada can really assist them. But I think Canada benefits because one wants to conduct trade in and with a country that has low corruption levels. So that is ultimately the benefit to Canadians in providing this assistance.