Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to clarify for people who may be reading these things in the blues and for some of our visitors here that CIDA does indeed work with many organizations, but our money goes to NGOs. I use the example of WUSC who are working in Burkina Faso with Barrick Gold, where WUSC is responsible for providing the programming to ensure that the people who are engaged with WUSC are developing real skills that will be useful in the greater economy.
One of the things that we've talked about today is the long run. I look at this in the long run, and I would suggest that the objective of any development dollar ought to be that we want to work ourselves out of business. That ought to be what we are looking for in the long run. The long run may take two decades. You talked about the curse of resources. What we need to do is to really help these countries take care of these resources in the most efficient way for their own economy.
I was listening to the six o'clock BBC news this morning, and they had a commentary on the Asian tigers who are losing their shine in light of the African lions that are emerging. When you see what these countries are becoming, there is such great opportunity for them. It means for us that working ourselves out of business will really be something we can achieve in our lifetime, and that ought to be our objective.
I had the opportunity to speak two weeks ago at the Canada-Nigeria investment conference at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. There were over 400 people from Nigeria who were here to look at opportunities for investment from Canada, and there were Canadian companies present at that conference looking for opportunities to invest in Nigeria. So it's going both ways. Development is very different today than it was in the 1950s, when many of these humanitarian organizations were set up, so we have the opportunity to make some changes.
A week ago Friday, both the Chair and I were fortunate to have the opportunity to speak at the North-South Institute, which is looking at new development opportunities for companies in both Canada and Africa to see these economies grow and emerge. I simply think there's great hope there, I really do.
When we look at what we are doing to merge our development dollars with our foreign affairs policy.... I guess, Mr. Munro, the first thing I would ask you is whether you think in the long run that Canadian values are going to change. We've talked about freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Do you think those values are going to change, and do you see there is the potential within another government administration to change those values and what we're trying to do in development, in the long run?