Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to colleagues. I don't sit on this committee, but I'm glad to take part in the conversation today. Thank you also to the witnesses.
We've heard, in terms of root causes, that global poverty plays a critical factor in all of this. Professor, you mentioned that at the outset of your remarks. Anyone who has looked at human trafficking knows poverty is a very relevant factor when it comes to the causes of trafficking in general terms. We've also heard today about the importance of data collection in helping to compile a secure and accurate picture of the problem, where it exists and what's being done to confront it. What I want to ask is in that vein, bringing together both of these ideas.
I want to put the question to Ms. Gosse. What can you tell the committee about the state of data collection in developing countries? If we look at global poverty we see that it's concentrated almost overwhelmingly in the global south. I'm going to guess that data collection, where it exists as it relates to human trafficking, is almost nil there. With that in mind, do you think there's a place for industrialized democracies such as Canada to assist developing countries in crafting and creating data collection systems to monitor human trafficking and to collaborate with them on that basis in concert?