Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Minister and Mr. Khokar, for being here today.
Mr. Minister, in your talk you mentioned that Haiti is at the crossroads. I certainly would agree with that analogy from the short time that I was there, seeing the progress that has been made. The last election, I believe, showed a stabilizing factor. I would view it as the glass being half full. The turnout was maybe in the 30% range, but still, given the instability of previous elections and the relative stability of this one, that's a gain.
I was also visiting the country and seeing some industrial development too. The visit to the Canadian manufacture plant of Gildan produced the surprising revelation that although they had a well-run, clean plant of some 1,300 people, he had plans there for two or three more plants, so there were expectations of 4,000 or 5,000 jobs coming up. The concern here is that not all jobs will be in the garment industry, as this is; there are far more opportunities than that. There's an eager population, very capable of working in these particular areas, and the jobs are much needed.
But when we look at some of the other problems there--and probably some have to be overcome, and probably in the near term--the most important one that seems to really stick out is the one of Cité Soleil and the area that is occupied by the bandits, as you could call them. From a point of view of economic growth or encouraging tourism or even encouraging and growing democratic institutions and reforms, all of these are without basis if you don't have a secure country.
Mr. Minister, is a timeframe being looked at? Is there a stronger, more determined approach coming up in the near future on dealing with the instability, particularly in that large part of the capital city, and what could people expect on movement on that area?