Thank you, Chair, and thank you to all for being with us.
Minister, I want to start by congratulating your government for increasing funding to the Global Fund to combat HIV and other maladies internationally. However, I want to ask you about funding for organizations here in Canada.
Last year, it emerged that the Public Health Agency of Canada had expanded the number of agencies deemed eligible for support under the HIV and hepatitis C community action fund, but that the fund itself would remain fixed at $26.4 million. Under this new allocation, many established community-based organizations either lost funding, or had it significantly reduced. I know you have pledged to address this for this current fiscal year.
Can you confirm that the previously funded organizations, all of them, have in fact been made whole with full transitional funding for this year? More importantly, will you commit to providing these organizations the same funding in the years ahead, and to expand funding for the federal initiative on HIV/AIDS?