Mr. Speaker, I would like to compliment my hon. colleague for a very thoughtful presentation, for an effective summary of the succession of man-made and natural disasters that have brutalized Haiti and Haitian society over the decades. I would also compliment my hon. colleague for his list of suggestions, suggestions that have been made in different forms by other colleagues on both sides of the House tonight and that all are worthy in their form.
I would remind my colleague, though, that at the Montreal conference shortly after the earthquake it was decided and there was consensus among the international community, NGOs and the Government of Haiti that the United Nations would be the coordinating body but that all final decisions would be made by the representatives of the people of Haiti, effectively the government of Haiti.
It is true that this year the succession of disasters on top of the earthquake disaster, the heavy rains, the cholera epidemic and now this election violence, each of these compounding the tragedy of the event before it, have left the Haitian people in, as the member properly described, a tragic situation, an even deeper tragedy than a year ago.
There is no shortage of money at hand, as the international community, with Canadians leading the way, has shared its charity in historic proportion, but the problem has been with the assignment of land, land title, the problems of rubble clearance, and reassignment of property for industries, any number of which are waiting in Canada to engage in housing. I wonder whether my colleague is suggesting that perhaps we should revisit the decision-making and implementation process with more forceful intervention by the international community.