Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much to the witnesses for joining us today.
I know more about the Business Development Bank of Canada and less about Export Development Canada. But I am somewhat aware of the work that the organization does.
I do not have a lot of questions for Mr. Denham because, as I said, I know the bank quite well; there is one in Rimouski, in my constituency. The BDC has an excellent reputation among business people. The bank is not in competition with other types of investments. It actually works in synergy with different groups, such as Canada Economic Development and Investissement Québec. I don’t have a lot to say to you except to congratulate you for your work and to hope that it continues.
My first question goes to Mr. Daignault and is about the new mandate that EDC received in budget 2015.
You did not talk about it a lot in your presentation. The mandate covers the work done in international development. In international development, we know that Canada has frozen its budgets for direct aid, for example, the aid intended for the Canadian International Development Agency, or CIDA.
However, there was an announcement about an initiative that will provide about $300 million in coming years, in order to establish a financial development institution that is supposed to help with investments in developing countries. I'd like to know your opinion on the integration of this new mandate with the one that EDC already has.