Thank you.
Now, I must admit I'm rather perplexed with the second paragraph here, which says that “recent OECD data show that Canada’s aid commitments to basic education have fallen precipitously over the last three years”.
I'm a little perplexed by that, I suppose because the fact of the matter is that it's pretty substantially increased. It's quite the opposite to your assertion. So I'm a little perplexed about that. Maybe we can have an explanation from you.
First off, in the area of basic education, in another brief that I have from your organization, I see that you say, “Currently 72 million children and 759 million adults cannot realize their human right to receive a quality education.” You have used the figure for basic education, which is an old figure, by the way. In fact, in 2007-08 basic education was 270 million, not 150 million. Again, I apologize, but I have to contest your assertions here.
With this assertion that you have 72 million children and 759 million adults--and you only talk about basic education--you don't take into account the total amount of education funding that is coming from Canada, which is $301 million. You're talking about $150 million. I have to be a little critical of that.
Secondly, in 2008-09, perhaps you weren't aware that CIDA spent $401 million on education, of which $329 million was directed to basic education.
I think perhaps the people who did Mr. Rae's research weren't aware of these numbers. I suspect that--