Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In its budget, the government announces a substantial cut in international development assistance, in particular food aid to the poorest countries on earth. In fact, it is reducing by 16 per cent the multilateral and bilateral food aid budget, which will fall from $300 million to $250 million this year.
How does the Minister of Foreign Affairs reconcile Canada's substantial cuts to its international assistance budget with the support it gave to increasing development aid to the poorest countries at the Copenhagen summit on social development?