Mr. Chair, I will begin by expressing my hopes that the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, if that will be his permanent position, will have the opportunity to put an end to the darkest period in the history of Canadian foreign affairs since I became a member. I have been a member in this House for 15 years and I have never seen a darker period than this one, ever since the Conservatives came to power.
Basically, the messenger was a greenhorn and not competent for the task, but the person responsible for his appointment was the Prime Minister of Canada, who sacrificed the people of Beauce in the interest of votes. That said, I hope that, from now on, we will have clear signs of the Conservatives' change of direction. The first thing I would like to ask the minister has to do with the millennium goals.
At present, only 0.29% of our gross domestic product is allocated to international aid, while the millennium goal is 0.7%. Considering the wealth of our society, how is it that the Conservative government has not taken action on this?
Based on our performance so far, we will not reach our objective until 2032. We often treat those who are most in need around the globe pretty much the same as people here at home. The government is currently adopting the same attitude towards international aid that it does towards employment insurance.