Thank you, Mr. Chair.
A recent article in The Economist stated that international aid is going to be hitting rough water. It talked about the European Union financial crisis, the U.S. crisis, and the cutbacks to the U.S. budget. We even see it with CIDA; we have sporadic funding.
So when you look at that side of the scale--that it's going to be harder to get funding or potentially harder--and then on the other side you see the need.... When we talk about some of these countries that are getting out of dictatorships, they're going to need our aid to help set up proper governance structures. Also, we have climate change and we have the population increase. So you have the demand side, with the supply side getting shorter.
Doug, you're in the business world, of course. That could create a bit of a problem. You stated in one of your comments that we have to mobilize the private sector. There's an article in The Globe and Mail today saying that just with Canadians alone, the average age of a donor who donates to various organizations has changed from the age of 45 to an average of 55 now. There's a concern out there about these individuals, which is that as these people are getting older, they're going to fall off the scale. There seems to be a lack of younger people--I'd call “younger people” those who are between the ages of 30 or 35 and 45--who should be getting in there.
That said, I guess the question is for you, Doug. Going back to your statement, how can we mobilize the private sector? How can we get this generation more into funding? We've had some successes. When we had the Somalia and Haiti initiatives, people stepped up to the plate to match the funds. But my concern is about going forward. When you see those numbers, how are we going to keep that age group seeing the benefits not only as a tax receipt but seeing the whole benefit of funding...? As you said in your statement, how do we mobilize that private sector? But also, how can we mobilize that age group?