Thank you, Minister, for the presentation, which I think was more philosophical in nature. I'm not sure if the expectation was that you would come here today with some proposals. I guess not, but you put the challenge back to the committee.
I have three ideas for you that I'll throw out. It picks up on the theme we just touched on, the role of parliamentarians. I just came back from Arusha, Tanzania, where our colleague John Williams heads up the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption. The reality is that you cannot build democratic institutions if you have corrupt countries, corrupt leaders, and money being laundered in offshore banking centres. I know that the department, through the human security progam, has been somewhat supportive of GOPAC. I hope you can do more, because I think there is a big role for legislators.
Secondly, you touched on fragile states. I would recommend that we also pay a little more attention to failed states. Somalia is a case in point and something I have been working on for years. I think we missed a bit of the envelope. It's never too late, but these failed states become breeding grounds for extremism and end up being a bigger problem than if we dealt with them proactively at the beginning.
Finally, let's look at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg. I think it's time the government looked at this more seriously in terms of our having some modest mission. Right now Strasbourg is served by Brussels; it was Bern. With the huge volume of work that's going on with parliamentarians in the parliamentary assembly, the Council of Europe is the preeminent body in Europe for democracy and human rights. Goodness knows we have challenges in Europe in that regard. I think it's time to look at having a modest mission in Strasbourg to serve those needs.