Mr. Chair, as I already said, spending that once accounted for 36% of CIDA's budget has fallen to 17%. I do not see how that squares with the minister's answer.
In January 2006, the government committed to promoting foreign development assistance, allocating $425 million over five years. Despite this, levels of foreign development assistance have dropped from 0.34% of the gross national income in 2005, to 0.29% in 2006, to just 0.2% in 2007.
What assurances can the minister give us that official foreign development assistance will at least be brought back up to its 2005 level of 0.34%?