Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
Minister, thank you for being with us here today.
Before I ask my first question, I need to say that I am incredibly disappointed by what I just heard from MP Hallan and the Conservatives. Mr. Hallan suggested that the minister had refused to appear. We knew weeks ago that the minister indicated she would be here today and available to appear. Instead of moving on, the Conservatives have spent the last 23 hours of this committee's time, which could have been used to study the budget, focus on making it better and address any concerns they have, serving Canadians.... Instead, they spent it talking about everything but what needed to be discussed, and filibustering a motion about the minister's appearance, which we already knew was going to happen. First of all, it's not true that the minister said she wasn't willing to appear. In fact, she indicated weeks ago that she was willing.
Now that the minister is here, instead of listening to what she has to say, the member across has the audacity to interrupt and heckle the minister and me. I think this shows that the Conservatives are completely uninterested in hearing what the minister has to say. This has nothing to do with having a substantive conversation about the budget and how we can improve the lives of Canadians. It has everything to do with scoring political points and obstructionism, and I think it's too bad. It's very disappointing.
Minister, I want to move to the questions I have to ask you.
First of all, I want to thank you for your continued hard work and collaboration in supporting the brave people of Ukraine. In the last budget, we earmarked $2.4 billion in support for Ukraine. I have several questions as part of that.
The first is, how does this support compare with the support included in budget 2022—the prior year's budget? What would you say to those who have concerns that the $2.4 billion is less than the over $5 billion we spent to support Ukraine in 2022? I believe Canada has been a global leader in the support of Ukraine. How does our support compare to that of peer nations?