Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Obviously the special standing committee on Afghanistan will be struck very shortly.
A deficiency that comes from both Foreign Affairs and CIDA, and also from Defence, is the nature of the briefings that we get. I have to say that being a privy councillor is very nice on my stationery, but it apparently doesn't do me any good after I'm no longer in the government. One of the concerns I have is the nature of the briefings we get, particularly on Afghanistan. Yes, there are many good things going on there; there is no question about it. I certainly agree. But there are also areas of deficiency and areas of concern that we have in the official opposition, and in order to get those briefings, we're going to have to look very carefully, Mr. Chairman, either in this committee or the special Afghanistan committee, at the nature of the information we get, because clearly we cannot do our job if we don't have the real facts.
You're asking for $441 million more, and much of this is covering Afghanistan. It started with a leap of faith--lately we're not very good at leaping--to give it support. I want to support the men and women. I've been to Afghanistan on two occasions, and I can certainly say that we have no question about providing the right tools for the job. But the minister talks about a whole-of-government reconstruction, and I keep hearing about whole of government, and yet I also hear from CIDA and from Foreign Affairs and from Defence that they're not working as collaboratively as they should be.
For my own edification and for members of the committee, Deputy Minister, you might indicate to us the nature of this whole-of-government approach in terms of what actually goes on mechanically to assist in making sure that everybody is on the same page. Certainly both here and in Kandahar I've heard nothing but people being off the page, and I would like to be somewhat reassured—and I may take this up with you privately later, obviously—as to how that actually, in your estimation, is working. Are there areas you feel could be improved that would help this committee?