Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. Thank you very much for this opportunity. I feel as if I'm home. I can see faces that have seen us.
The Canadian Council on Africa has been around for over 20 years—22 years, to be exact. We were created for the sole purpose of promoting trade and economic development between the continent of Africa and Canada. My predecessors just spoke on the whole background of Africa, but I'm going to talk just about common sense.
When we talk about Africa, what is Africa? We are talking about a huge market here of 54 countries. We are talking about 1.2 billion people. We know all these statistics, but why should Canada be looking at Africa?
I'm going to be focusing on the business side, the economic side.
One thing I want to raise from the beginning is that when we talk about Canada, we are talking about trying to help. We are doing aid, but let's remember one thing: If our economy is not working in this country, then we are not going to have aid. In Africa, if they don't have the economy working, then there's no sustainability.
The Canadian Council on Africa was created to promote Canadian businesses. We thought there was potentially a market in Africa, a huge market. Of late we have seen that Africa has moved to consolidating its market with a continental free trade agreement, which is going to create, as Chris mentioned, one of the largest markets.
What are we doing in Canada? We are basically sitting here and saying, “Oh, Africa.” I'm not coming here to tell you how to help Africa; I'm talking about how we can help Canadian companies to take opportunities to look at the opportunities on that continent.
I just asked, “Why Africa?” and I talked about the size of the market. Why Canada, then? When people look at Canada, they look at the business ethics. They look at Canadians' values. They look at expertise. They look at know-how. They look at our technology. We have done this before. What is agriculture? What is telecommunications? What is infrastructure? We have done these things.
Canada is built on small businesses. I come from working with Canadian manufacturers and exporters, small businesses. That's what built this country. We can communicate well with Africa. This is what Africans have been looking for from Canadians, but what do we go there for? We say, “We can come and help you” or “We have money.” They are not asking for money; they are asking for people to come and work with them to build their economies.
This is what I want us to understand: We are not doing this for Africa. The world has changed today. I'm talking about Canadians. How do we help Canadians? The policy we are talking about is to build the economy. When you bring businesses together, everything else works.
Let me say this. Do you know why there is insecurity? Do you know why there are all of these wars? When those young people are not working, what do you think they are going to do? When they are not working, when there are no jobs.... Kids are going to university. We have top universities. Yes, they are studying, but there are no jobs. When there are no jobs, anybody can lure those young people into doing whatever. Then we say, “Oh, we want this security.” How are you going to build security?
Here at home, if the economy is not working, we are also going to see that insecurity mounting, so we have to build our companies here in Canada. I'm talking to our companies here.
In business, people need information. They are looking not just for money but also for information. Our government should put their resources into our trade commissioner services, into our department. If you go to an African department, you find two people sitting there, and they cannot give you much information. They need resources. We need better information. We need to find a better way of putting Canadians together so that we can share information. That's what we need.
I think we need Canada to change now.
Africa is looking up to Canada. Do you know what we are looking for from Canada? Where is your expertise? Where is your know-how? We want your values. Even if we have other nations coming, we want Canadians, because we know how you do things.
I want our governments to take leadership. We used to lead when Canada was the voice of reason. When Canadians were walking in the road, people would say, “Look at the Canadians”, but now they don't even know where we fit in.
I want to end by saying this: We have a golden opportunity. The African market is there for us. What I am coming to ask you, very simply, is to help me to work with Canadian companies so that we can take them to Africa. Africa needs business. They don't need aid; they need business. That's all they need.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.