Welcome back, everyone. We're going to move right into the second hour of our study.
Our first guest is Denis Tougas, the director of programs for Africa. We also have today, from Development and Peace, Serge Blais, program officer, Africa International Program Services; and from Alternatives Canada, Michel Lambert,executive director.
We welcome you here. We apologize for the confusion of some guests leaving and you coming.
As you've already heard--I notice that you were sitting through most of their presentations--we're really beginning today our study on the Great Lakes region in Africa. We are beginning today to also recognize that it is a key element of Canada's foreign policy.
We certainly welcome the three of you to the first part of this study. We look forward to your comments. If you each have an opening statement, we'll probably only have one round, but we look forward to that. We would ask you to keep it under 10 minutes, if possible.
We'll start with Mr. Tougas.