Mr. Speaker, that was a wonderful speech the minister made, if I may say so myself. It was beautiful in its rhetoric, intent, warmth and caring. But I want to focus on one thing the minister said because he brought this into the discussion in his speech and that is with regard to the Gates foundation and to the work being done on the vaccine.
I recollect that the Gates foundation had suggested that countries that participated should not remove funds from their national and local communities in order to participate. There have been many communities in Canada which have been shortchanged until now to the tune of $60 million taken out and not spent from the national AIDS strategy that has been put into the Gates foundation.
While we talk about extensive funding, I would like to ask the minister, looking at the debate tonight with a huge cohort of people in this country who in increasing numbers of HIV infection and who are dying in large numbers, how does the minister feel in his conscience that he could take away from the Canadian effort to give to the Bill Gates effort and not just put new money, which is what he should have done in the first place?