Thank you, and thank you to our guest for her overview and update.
It's interesting that as Canadians we share a long history of Sudan. In fact, we go back to 1884, when there was a picture taken on Parliament Hill of a group that set off under the leadership of Garnet Wolseley to go to Sudan to actually rescue and bring back General Charles Gordon, who had been left there. So we actually went back, and on that escapade, I think, there were lumbermen and Mohawk first nations--quite a crew. I'm not sure they all knew what they were getting into, and I think that's maybe similar to what we do sometimes.
I think right now we have to establish what our goals are as a country. I think one of them is very obvious to me--you mentioned it already--and that is, the provision of helicopters. It's certainly been an issue in our House of Commons that we actually have the capability to do that. There was a rather interesting debate as to whether we actually had them physically here, never mind that there were ways of securing them. So one of the things that makes infinite sense is to provide the helicopter capacity.
I know in the case of Sudan and in the case of Congo, there has been an ask to Canada to provide for that coordination piece amongst the UN missions, respectively in Congo and in Sudan. That is because we have an expertise there. So it's not deploying thousands and thousands of troops, but providing the coordination piece.
I'd like your take on that as something that would be helpful.
I also found your point about the consolidation around state-building very interesting. I guess this is hopefully what's happening in Doha right now, in looking to the horizon of how we support the post-conflict piece. My question would be this. How can Canada help with the consolidation part?
So I would just like your comments on those three questions: the equipment; the coordination ability for Canada to help out with that in the military mission; and also how we can help out with the consolidation of state-building and governance.