Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, guests, for coming here today.
As many know, it's a challenge dealing with Haiti after the earthquake. I respect Ms. Brown's words regarding how well we're doing down there, but it's not all good. As an opposition member, I'm not here to wreck the party, but there are some bad reports out there saying that we're not doing our job.
Just recently, there was an article by Postmedia News that quoted international groups as saying that we're not doing our job there, especially, as some of you alluded to, helping with a strong professional police force. If we don't have a strong professional police force in that country, things will go back to where they were or get even worse.
There is an article here that states--and this might have been alluded to today--that the national police academy project was announced in 2008 with a five-year commitment from the Canadian government. That was four years ago, so there's only one year left on this one. It goes on to state that
the academy is to accommodate about 300 students between the ages of 25 and 45, with 70 per cent being men and 30 per cent women. There will be about 20 buildings [with various] sports and training facilities.
It also goes on to say here that
the International Crisis Group, a respected think-tank known for its in-depth analysis and work in fragile countries, issued a report highlighting the need for a strong, professional Haitian police force. ICG also noted the lack of progress on the Canadian-funded national police academy.
It pretty well sums it up here. It says:
Three years after Canada pledged $18 million to build a national police academy in Haiti, not a single brick has been laid.
That's pretty bad. I'm not trying to pick on the government here, but they're fans of law and order, and they're good at getting projects done, especially in places like Muskoka. But back to this, I know it's a hard region to work with, but it's pretty bad that after almost four years not a brick has been laid. Is that going to cause a big problem in that country with their so-called law and order and having a professional police force?