I actually disagree very strongly with Ms. MacDonald's approach. I think a couple of things. I think CIDA procedures need to be streamlined. Like every public development agency, it's way too bureaucratic.
I'm actually in the process of applying for some money from CIDA. I look at the application form. I have a master's degree from an American university, and I can't read the thing. You need a PhD in development contracting.
The fact is that CIDA has now been on the ground for a year and a half to two years and it has built up an experience. In other words, there were a lot of programs that took way too long in the pipeline that are now, finally, beginning to hit the ground. If you were to halt all of that and create a whole new structure, believe me, you would create a lot more bureaucracy.
What I would look at, again, as a committee, is bypassing some of the extremely rigid procurement requirements and think about how we can make our public development agency more flexible, a more rapid-reaction kind of agency, not just for Afghanistan but for all the other crises that are going to face Canada and other western countries in the future. I think it would be a real waste of an investment to pull CIDA out now.