Thank you, Mr. Foster, for coming today. It's always fun to come to committees and answer the questions. I have three lines of questioning.
This extraction industry transparency initiative, I guess they call it EITI, was already brought up by the NDP. We had a witness here a few weeks ago who stated that one of the biggest problems in development in underdeveloped countries is, “Where's the money?” I think he mentioned $1 trillion is floating around the globe in banks and in the wrong hands and is not going to where it needs to go in the development of countries and to the treasuries where it's needed.
There's a Globe and Mail article that was already mentioned. I think it's recognized that the European Parliament has signed on with this initiative. Norway, Australia, and the Netherlands are following, and Canada is kind of hanging back and not doing that. The United States has the Dodd-Frank initiative.
Is there any reason we're not signing on? Is there any particular reason that our government is probably afraid to get in there and do this? Is there a problem with our transparency here?