We need to be true to ourselves and take care of things at home while we look out for others around the world. The two are intertwined. What if we had been better, more strongly engaged, with what was happening in Syria years and years ago, for example, when the drought started? What if we had intervened with our development dollars? What if we had worked to coordinate and bring together international partners at a critical moment way upstream? Would the bodies of those little boys and girls still wash up on our shores?
There is a direct link between our doing our part around the world and providing leadership, particularly now that we have a feminist approach to what we're doing, which is more effective. There is a direct link between those interventions and greater safety and security for us, but there is also an economic advantage. Canada has, for example, technology around water and waste-water management, and we need to ensure that indigenous communities here have access to clean drinking water. We've made the right investments. The decisions on how to go about providing that clean drinking water for indigenous communities are in their hands, and to date we've lifted over a half of those boil water advisories. The other half will be lifted over the next two years. That means we have the expertise. We have the engineers. We have the technicians who can go around the world to places like the African continent and share that expertise and create economic development opportunities for Canada and for our partner countries. They're directly related.
As far as women's organizations in Canada go—and I'll put on my women and gender equality hat—we've invested historic amounts, over a half a billion dollars, over the last three years for women's organizations in this country. This includes investments in those who are working to address and prevent sexual and gender-based violence. This includes historic, never seen before capacity-building dollars. What I would ask you to share with all of your constituents, for those who are working to advance gender equality, is that there's an additional $160 million in budget 2019 over the next five years, beyond an election cycle. We're going to work really hard to make sure that we get to come back and that we're able to provide those dollars to communities. I hope that every government from here on is going to take the needs of women's organizations at home and abroad seriously, because they are the most effective way to advance gender equality.