Mr. Speaker, in situations of economic crisis such as occurred in Indonesia and other Asian countries the IMF must move very quickly in order to recreate confidence in capital markets.
The hon. member is very justified in pointing out that the real cost is borne by individual populations, by women and by children who are forced to drop out of school. As a result of that Canada took a very strong position at the APEC meeting that the World Bank must move in parallel with the IMF in order to directly alleviate the suffering that is being felt.
I am glad to say that the president of the World Bank was there. He also spoke to the same position. The vast majority of finance ministers supported it. I take the hon. member's question as support from this House for that position.