I think the decision to flatline aid past this year is unfortunate, obviously, because I work in this area and I think we can no longer think about what happens “over there” as something that simply happens over there. We live in an interconnected globe. What happens in Africa or happens in rural areas of Mexico, where H1N1 started, matters here. It's a world with decreasing borders and certainly no solid foundations between countries.
So I think it's unfortunate that there was a decision to flatline aid. I hope, and again this is a longer issue for the committee, that in terms of Canada's role beyond the G8 we should be working to reverse that decision.