Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome, Minister. I have three questions for you.
In your opening statement, you said that your government is “on track to meet our commitment to double Canada's international assistance to $5 billion annually by next year”. Are you able to tell me what percentage of Canada's GNP that represents?
You also said that all changes to the list of the 20 core countries will now have to be approved by Cabinet, for strategic reasons. Do those reasons jibe with the trade agreements that your government is currently negotiating with a number of countries, including Colombia and Peru?
You have withdrawn from your new list of core countries eight African countries, adding instead four Latin American countries. How were the new countries selected? Did you hold consultations? If so, whom did you consult? According to data provided to me by the Canadian Council for International Cooperation, the 2005 list contained more poor countries than the 2009 list. Based on the UN's human development index, 11 of the countries on the 2005 list were ranked as having poor human development. By comparison, only seven of the countries on the 2009 list were deemed to be weak in terms of human development. Knowing that, can you tell me why you decided to remove those African countries and add countries such as Colombia?