Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the hon. member's interest in this subject, but this is a very difficult issue. Obviously there is not enough foreign aid to go in all the areas where we would like it to go. Somewhere there has to be criteria to judge individual applications for aid. It is within this context that we review all proposals for development programming, even those that come from partners who have received funding in the past, to determine if they align with the priority areas that I mentioned earlier.
We do this because ultimately we are accountable to Canadian taxpayers, but also because millions of people in all corners of the world count on us to deliver aid that is effective and that responds to the needs of those who need it most.