Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much to all of our witnesses for being here.
I have a very personal reason for wanting to see Mali get back to stability. For the last 10 years, our family has supported a little girl by the name of Tolatta Togo in Mali through World Vision. To know she is living in a country that is undergoing such turmoil does not give me the satisfaction that there is hope and opportunity for her for the future. I personally want to see the country return to some sort of normalcy just so that in a very selfish way I can see Tolatta have hope and opportunity.
Mr. Morrison, you gave us some of the perspective on Canada's humanitarian involvement now. You said we have withdrawn our support from the government directly. Canada has been an actor in Mali for many, many years. I wonder if you could just lay out for the committee some of the things that Canada has been involved with in helping to build capacity. I understand we have been working with an auditor general's office there to help them develop some government structures. I wonder if you could lay out for the committee some of our larger activities. Maybe, if we have time, you could comment on how Canada responded to the situation in the Sahel last year when the drought was emerging.