Thank you very much.
First of all, I want to thank you for coming before us today and making your presentations. They are very informative. I've learned a lot about Brandaid today, and I didn't know too much about the work you did, so I want to thank you for that.
I also want to acknowledge the work your organization does. I had the pleasure of attending your conference with your volunteers along with my colleague Dean a few weeks ago. I was so impressed by the commitment of your volunteers who came from right across this huge country and were willing to give up their weekend to do the important work your organization does. Not only that, but I also have to commend you for doing what must have been an amazing job with them, because their lobbying sessions with the MPs that followed your conference were really very focused and very good.
We're here today to talk about microfinance, our foreign aid, and the role of the private sector, but I also want to talk a little bit about the fact that a lot of your campaigns are centred on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. I met with your groups that came around and really appreciated the fact you did it zonally, because the people who came around to meet with me were from Vancouver Island and the Vancouver area. So I could actually relate to the work back there, and we could have a connection that way.
The work you're doing in the area of AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis is absolutely amazing. Since being on the Hill, I've learned a lot more about tuberculosis and its connections and impact than I knew before. The global fund saves millions of lives. We know that. But it is going through a very difficult time right now. I've been looking through the newspapers, seeing some of the headlines saying that the global fund for world health is halting new programs and beginning to scale back even on some of the programs it does.
I have to commend the Canadian government for its very generous pledge to the fund. We know that in your own communications recently, you actually said:
Tell Canada's Government that you support a bold pledge for the global fund that will support cost-effective programs that save lives from these deadly infectious diseases.
You've acknowledged that in your communications.
However, when I start digging into this, I'm getting a little bit concerned about the programs that are being cut and the programs that are not being started. Really, from the information I've been able to gather, even though we have pledged what I would say is a good amount of money, I'm not sure how much of it has actually been given to global fund. The last time I looked at the website, I saw that we hadn't transferred any money over yet. My fear is that we're putting lives at risk, if the global fund is in that kind of a critical condition.
So what is your sense—