Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will share the time I have been allotted with Mr. Martin.
Thank you, Minister O'Connor, Mr. Hillier, and Mr. Monette, for your opening remarks, and welcome to our committee.
Your visit is very much appreciated, because when we have soldiers at war as we do in Afghanistan, there is nothing more important for the Canadian population than having an update on the situation without putting the mission in danger, and this on a regular basis.
In your remarks, you stated that success in Afghanistan cannot be assured by regular force means. You also mentioned the reconstruction and development goals.
I have two questions. Recently, Lieutenant-Colonel Simon Hetherington, the commanding officer of Canada's PRT, the provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar, told the Canadian Press that the Canadian Forces members previously dedicated to PRT have been assigned to combat duty rather than their original duty of being assigned to Canada's development goals in Afghanistan. What is the reason for that?
Secondly, last Monday Brigadier-General Howard told a Senate committee that the PRT is ready to proceed with civil projects, but cannot because it is still awaiting cash from CIDA. As he said, there are a few funding glitches and there are number of projects where we are just waiting to get additional money, understanding that the military has been using $1.9 million to fund the development project.
Can you tell us what projects were put aside by lack of funding? Do you know if a portion of the $30 million envelope provided last week by the CIDA minister in Kabul is also for the Kandahar region and will fill what is missing over there?
Thank you.