Thank you very much.
Thank you for coming, Mr. Flack and Mr. Hermosa.
I'm not a lawyer, but when I read subclause 4(1), it looks pretty simple and clear-cut to me. It says:
Development assistance may be provided only if the competent minister is of the opinion that it
(a) contributes to poverty reduction;
(b) takes into account the perspectives of the poor;
I don't see any room in there for debt relief or money laundering efforts or land mines exercises or efforts to encourage peace talks in the Sudan or anything else. I know this was not the intent of the proponent, but perhaps we can move an amendment on that and broaden it a little bit with the support of the committee.
But I want to move on. You were talking about confidentiality and reports. In reading clause 9, I see an awful lot of demands here for reports. There's a report for the description of any activity or initiative under the act; another report for the summary of the annual report submitted in clause 8; a report for the summary of the annual report submitted under the Bretton Woods and related agreements; a report for the summary of any representation made by Canadian representatives to the IMF and the World Bank; a summary of the departmental performance report; a report on the disbursement of development assistance within one year after the end of each fiscal year; a report for the summary of the operations under this act; another report for the summary of any representation made by the Canadian representatives; another report for the summary of the manner in which Canada's activities under the Bretton Woods and Related Agreements Act have contributed to carrying on the purpose of this act, and so on.
I just find this report-heavy, and you talked about some duplication. Could you point out where the duplication is in some of these reports?