Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for being here today. I am going to carry on with that same thought in just a slightly different way.
First of all, I want to say thank you for being here, because I think all Canadians are pleased to hear what our CIDA development money is doing. This is an opportunity for them to get a little bit of insight, I think all the more when we can see that money being compounded by working with industries within countries and seeing it being put to good use.
In your intervention you noted the importance of the extractive sector to developing countries. Farther down you said that one of your responsibilities is host country capacity-building. You went on to say most of these moneys are invested in public services and social support. Our last intervenor talked about consequences, mostly in the negative form.
Mr. Singleton, I'd like to pick up where we just finished and talk about the consequences of our extractive industries in these countries from a positive perspective. We've heard about the imposition of vexatious claims against some of these companies. What would happen to these countries in which we are working if these companies had a vexatious accusation and made the decision that they were not going to pursue extractions in a country?