Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Members of the committee.
I want to welcome you to Toronto for this final public consultation.
My name is Brian Cheung, and I am here on behalf of Engineers Without Borders, Ingénieurs sans frontières, along with two other members, Imad and Hailey, who will be speaking later.
As Mr. Easter mentioned during the break, I'm sure you haven't heard from us at all during this process.
We have made a submission to the committee. I believe you've heard statements from other EWB members in seven of your previous eight stops—we regret not hitting Charlottetown—so you've heard our message by now. We are asking you to raise the amount of the international assistance envelope by 10% per year over 10 years, approach the 0.7% of GNI target that has been suggested for several years by both the OAC and UN.
Canada is a global country, from our people, to our economy, to our interests. If the standard of living across the world increases, thus do our fortunes. The vastest sources of growth are and will be the global south, and that's best served by a stable foundation of education, health, laws, and economic mobility.
I'm also going to echo the previous speaker in terms of cracking down on tax havens, because that certainly is an outflow that is unfortunate, both for us as well as for developed countries.
I believe that Canada certainly has an ability to contribute knowledge and experience and resources in these interests, these fields, these sectors.
According the words of our Prime Minister, Mr. Trudeau, we are Canadian and we are here to offer our help. The words sound good, but are we offering anything besides words?
Thank you.