Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister and Deputy Minister, for being here before the committee today.
Madam Minister, you've indicated that CIDA works in a partnership with defence officials in Afghanistan. Based on the information available, the attempts of my party to make a calculation of what the complexion of that really is led us to the conclusion that for every $9 being expended on defence in Afghanistan, there is a mere $1 being expended on international development, diplomacy, and peacekeeping. Could you indicate whether our calculations, based on the information available to us, are in fact accurate in that regard?
Second, in the House yesterday, in response to my colleague Dawn Black, the NDP defence critic, you asserted that the work in Kandahar was being conducted with the greatest transparency, and you referred to technical briefings done by officials in the department. I'm wondering if you can supply to this committee the documentation, the detailed papers, on the basis of which that transparent technical briefing has been provided. In other words, can you share that with us?
Third, I'm sure you will be aware of growing concerns about the increasing militarization of aid. We understand that the previous government had begun to express the position at the OECD that they were in favour of changing the definition of what is considered to be official development assistance to include military expenditures. Could you indicate the position of your government on this issue in general? In particular, can you indicate to us how many PRT members are actually employed in Kandahar and, of those, how many are CIDA employees and how many are defence employees?