As far as military expenditures are concerned, you would have to ask that question of my colleague the Minister of National Defence. Development aid expenditures total $100 million, including $15 million which will be spent in the Kandahar region by the end of the year according to our estimates.
As for the technical details, we would be pleased to send you the information which was provided during last week's meeting. That makes me smile. You mean to say that your colleague asked me about some technical details he was unfamiliar with. He will have read them and will see for himself that we are acting with full transparency in this matter.
We are not militarizing our development aid. I know that your party does not support our mission in Afghanistan. I know that your party held its convention in the Quebec City area. As you know, thousands of military personnel live in the Quebec City area with their families and their friends. The NDP, at its convention, said that it truly does not believe in what our people are accomplishing over there.
Not only do I live in that area, but I took the time to listen to what the people had to say on this issue. I was given very specific examples of how we need to gain the trust of the Afghans. However, the results are there. Reconstruction is happening. The situation is difficult. It is not easy to work in that type of situation. Humanitarian aid can only happen when there is security. Everyone is saying this. I don't understand why you still don't see that.
If our humanitarian workers, especially local ones, because that is our approach—
We didn't go there to impose our views. We went there and we made sure that everyone, including communities, village councils composed of elders and women, who now have rights, participated in establishing the priority of the projects. The country now has a constitution. When the people tell us what they want, we work at making it happen. But to do so, we need security. We need the security provided to us by Canadian soldiers.