Mr. Chair, I thank my hon. colleague for his question and his participation in the foreign affairs committee hearings on this very important matter.
As the member would know, in addition to the $13 million of new money for humanitarian assistance directly related to the internally displaced persons in Mali as a result of this crisis, Canada has been one of the largest donors to Mali in the international community for more than 20 years. In fact, Mali is one of Canada's top 20 countries of focus. Since 2007, the Canadian government, through various CIDA projects, has been spending, on average, over $110 million each and every year in Mali.
It is certainly not the case that Canada is abandoning Mali or any other part of Africa. In fact, we are putting in more money than ever, and we are one of the largest donor countries in the world in that region.