Thank you very much, Mr. Julian.
I couldn't agree with you more. I remember I was attending the Dubai air show—this would have been four or five years ago—and the President of Brazil came with a very large delegation to the Middle East. Of course, our trade to Jordan had a nice bump up when Bombardier sold some aircraft to Jordan, but Embraer very effectively sold a number of aircraft to Saudi Arabia. The budget for the President of Brazil and his trade delegation for two days at the Dubai air show was over a million dollars.
It's a rough game out there. I think there is a role—and I realize it's not a role, necessarily, that you as politicians can play—of educating the Canadian public about the cost of doing business. It costs you $200, $300 a night to go into a hotel. No one expects someone with workloads such as you have on quick flights not to fly business class, and that's going to cost a certain amount of money. These aren't perks; these are the absolute norms of international business.
Quite honestly, if we don't grow up and realize that this is the game that's being played by France, by Germany, by the U.K., by Australia, by the United States, where a one-day visit to Greece, when the President came there—and Mr. Cannis will remember this—cost something like $5 million.... That's one day. It's overhead. But out of that, hopefully, you get the return on investment, and I'm 100% confident that you will.
Equally, there is a cost of doing business in embassies. Believe you me, I think my colleagues could not be harder working and more committed to public service, those in the trade and diplomatic service of Canada. It's not in any way an easy job these days, and the resources that are needed to facilitate interaction, to have hospitality events, are enormously significant.
If you'll permit me an aside, Mr. Chair, we were hoping that the Canada-Arab Business Council, together with the Council of Arab Ambassadors here in Ottawa, could host you and your other parliamentary colleagues at a reception on Parliament Hill, but of course—