Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I certainly appreciate our two witnesses today. Very few people have the view on the ground that you would have, and it's important to us. I want to commend you for the work you do. Listening to your report, it's pretty obvious that there's extensive work being done, and it's important work.
As a member of the official opposition, we often find ourselves in a little bit of an awkward position, because having said this, we've also had concerns brought to us. I have a couple of notes here.
I've been told that CIDA, along with the Canadian embassy and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, was actively involved in lobbying for the mining law that was recently passed in Honduras. I want to give you an opportunity to respond to that in a moment.
Truthfully, I find that quite exceptional, since there was a survey in November 2011, and our information is that 91% of Hondurans were opposed to open-pit mining, which this bill allows. Another aspect of it is that the water supply would be at risk, depending on where certain areas were unprotected, and this would put in grave jeopardy the livelihoods of farmers.
When we hear this kind of thing, knowing the good work that you've traditionally done and continue to do—and I want to stress that—I think it is important to give you an opportunity to respond. I'll actually have two particular questions in a moment.
The process that's in place says that theoretically people can say no to the mining, but it's pretty clear that the rights have already been granted to some companies. To come to the question, why would Canada want to get involved in a situation where it's obvious that the affected communities don't want us to be part of it and they don't want that particular activity to take place?
For the second question, could you name any projects that CIDA is currently funding jointly with extractive industries in Honduras? Could you provide us with some details, if they exist, and the nature and the purpose of the projects?