Mr. Speaker, I have the honour of presenting this petition. It is the first one of its kind that I have presented. It is a petition to the Government of Canada highlighting Canada becoming a global leader in aid effectiveness.
In 2009, $4.73 billion went into aid, but some of my constituents want the Government of Canada to be more proactive on transparency, creativity and accountability, doing things such as calling on the G8 to standardize tracking and reporting major international commitments. They also call for an innovation fund worth $200 million per year and new and riskier approaches to development so that there would be proactive element to this, as well as being very transparent. Certainly CIDA projects have been completely transparent in the last few years.
I want to congratulate the petitioners in the towns of Grand Falls—Windsor, Twillingate and Summerford for sending me this petition.