I would like to, yes. Thank you.
We have looked at the government's response. As my colleague stated, it's a workable response. What's positive about the response is that it is multi-stakeholder. It's a collaborative approach to improving CSR. Your CIDA example is a perfect example of a multi-stakeholder approach where industry could work with CIDA, and that's the approach we're looking at, a very transparent, multi-stakeholder approach.
You mentioned the voluntary nature of the counsellor's position. I find it interesting: my understanding is that actually the NGOs were asked if they would waive consent to participate in an investigation, and they said no. So how would this approach be accountable to both sides?
Another interesting point about the whole voluntary aspect of participating in an investigation is that DFAIT, when they actually testified at this committee, made the statement that they did a study, and 100% of companies that were asked to participate in investigations participated. They gave their consent because it makes sense. When there's a clear, transparent approach that's well resourced, there's no reason for a company not to go through with that.
That's what our statement is. Mr. Rae provided a perfect list of the existing CSR standards with the IFC, the CPP, the EDC. They all have standards that we're held to account for, that we're already working through. There's no reason to do away with CSR. In fact, I certainly hope it's not. One of the comments about a developing phenomena, for me, is that anthropologists and social scientists are working with mining companies. Community development specialists are now part of mining projects. That's a wonderful phenomenon.