Mr. Sweet, thank you very much for your kind words. It was an honour to share the podium with you. You're certainly a worthy recipient of the award.
Part of the institutional building that will take place during my chairmanship is to look at engaging other countries. Specifically, I was tasked by the Government of Canada to look at having Ukraine join as a member country. At the moment, Ukraine is not a member of the ITF. As you know, there were about 1.5 million who were killed in the Shoah in Ukraine. It's a very large player in terms of their history of the Holocaust and the importance of engaging the country.
At the moment, the ITF does have program funding provided to different countries, including non-member countries. Ukraine has already benefited—at least, the NGO community has benefited—from some of the funding from the ITF.
There are other countries that have shown an interest as well: Bulgaria, Albania, and Liechtenstein. We also have observer member countries, such as Portugal, Turkey, and Macedonia, that also have shown an interest in maybe advancing to full member status. We hope that during my chairmanship I will engage not just the 31 member countries, but other countries, such as those I listed, to see if they'll have an interest in becoming observers or full members, or at least proceed during my mandate.
To become a full member, there is a process. The 31 member countries in the organization basically work on consensus. There has to be agreement by all member countries.
As I mentioned, Canada joined under the leadership of the Prime Minister and Jason Kenney in 2007. It became an observer member by consensus of the member states. Canada then had to do a baseline study. It had to be a liaison member, which is another stage. Then it became a full member in 2009. The fact that Canada is hosting the chairmanship of the committee in 2013 is a great testament to the work Canada is doing on the international front and also its commitment to the ITF. It is a large undertaking and a large commitment.
We're hoping that during our chairmanship year we'll be able to strengthen the organization. Certainly, our goal is to leave the organization stronger than when we started.
From the different members whom I've spoken with, there's a lot of expectation that Canada will do well. This is a country to which the world looks for leadership on issues, not just in combatting Holocaust denial in countries such as Iran, and not just on issues of anti-Semitism that are creeping up all over the world, even in some member countries in Europe, which is of grave concern. I think there is a role for Canada to play. There's also a role for us to network with other countries to make sure that we do a good job for the organization and to leave the organization stronger than when we began our chairmanship.