Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Gentlemen, thank you for being here this morning and sharing your considerable experience and expertise with us. I'd like to start with Mr. Chapin.
Mr. Chapin, you mentioned you had 30 years of experience in foreign affairs, especially in the field of international security, which I think is very interesting. Also, you mentioned that in your opinion it will be the people who will make it work. As a lawyer who practised in the area of mergers and acquisitions for 25 years, I agree with that statement. It's always the people who make it work in the merging of any two great organizations. I know that we have great civil servants here, and I'm very confident they will make it work.
I want to draw on your experience as an international security expert, if I may. You wrote in the Ottawa Citizen that “Canada's modest and tentative responses to the end of the Cold War and the 9/11 attacks tell the story of why CIDA needs to be brought back into the fold.”
Can you elaborate on that point and explain how amalgamating DFAIT and CIDA could assist Canada's overall responsiveness to such tragic and historic events?