Madam Speaker, that is a good question. We need to get some sense of proportion. The banks are said to have deprived Canada of $2 billion in tax revenue. I have read that this figure represents the budget of the University of Montreal until 2009. These are extraordinary figures, and they are easier to understand when transposed to some other area.
I would also like to add this clarification. We have referred to Barbados, but there are the three Bs: the Bahamas, Bermuda and Barbados. Moreover, in 2001, Canadian investors just happen to have invested $34 billion in Barbados, Bermuda and the Bahamas. During that same period, we invested $24 billion in all of Latin America. So, it just so happens that these three tiny countries, with a total population of 270,000, got $34 billion of investments, while all of Latin America, with a population of 10 million, many times over, got $24 billion.
As for Africa, our Prime Minister's favourite place—and this shows the political will and influence this government has, and how it puts its money where its mouth is—investments totalled $2.8 billion, compared to $34 billion for the 3 Bs.
This shows the hypocrisy of this government. There is an huge gap between words and actions. This is an area where the just society really comes into play. They used to be so big on the just society and social justice, but no more. There is no political will there. The debates that have initiated by the Bloc Quebecois these past 10 years prove quite clearly that there is no such political will on that side, none at all.