Mr. Chair, I congratulate my colleague on the government side.
What he said is backed by research. There are many interesting facts. He definitely has a broad perspective of the situation, a perspective that is quite interesting.
He recognizes that Osama Bin Laden is no longer with us. We can all agree on that.
Perhaps we should start talking about Canada's involvement, what we in Canada have done so far, and about how our interest in Mali could be expressed.
The $13 million that we have offered so far seems very limited to me. We could do much better than that. We have close relations with Mali. We know a lot of people there. We have companies operating in Mali, and we have a lot of interests.
So far, the Conservative government does not seem to know what to do about Mali, how we could intervene and what we could do.
The member is obviously quite knowledgeable, but he did not talk about the guiding principles behind Canada's interventions in Mali. What is the purpose? Does Canada want to provide aid? Is it expected to follow the advice of other states or has it found its own way of intervening? What exactly is it responding to?
I would rather like to hear things like "we have a specific action plan for Mali".
What are we specifically trying to do in Mali, and what kind of resources will we invest? Are we going to provide more than $13 million? Frankly, that is not enough.