Thank you very much.
Minister, a few weeks ago at this committee we had Anthony Bebbington. You might know of him; he's from the graduate school of geography in Massachusetts. He shared some interesting information with us about things he's hearing from Latin American politicians.
He mentions that Canada's foreign policy links with mining are undermining our country's credibility. In fact, he commented—I was really taken aback by it—that a Latin American minister of the environment actually told him this: “I don't know if Canada has ever been quite so discredited in its history.”
I have to tell you, Minister, when I heard that last week it actually gave me goosebumps, because it's not anything I want to hear. At the same time, he said that another official had said to him, “As far as I can tell, the Canadian ambassador here is a representative for Canadian mining companies.”
As you can see, both of those kinds of comments would cause us, as Canadians right around Canada, a great deal of concern.
There is no doubt that you have personally pushed for greater links between NGOs and mining firms. In the fall you announced $26 million in partnerships with Barrick Gold, IAMGOLD, and Rio Tinto-Alcan.
The question, Minister, is this. Let us put aside for a moment the various strengths or drawbacks of these projects. My question is a very simple one: why do multi-billion-dollar private companies need Canadian taxpayer dollars to do this kind of development work?