Mr. Chair, members have been encouraged by the initial success of the French forces. I am sure the hon. member agrees with me on that point. It is fairly clear that the French wish, as do we, to hand off the military part of the security as soon as possible to African-led initiatives.
It is therefore curious that the government has not participated in the $450 million funding of AFISMA, which is the main African-led security entity, which will be the entity that steps in to deal with the Islamist threat.
My question to the hon. member is fairly simple. Why is it that Canada has not helped with the funding of AFISMA?