Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table a petition in the House today on behalf of dozens of members from my community of Hamilton Mountain on CIDA's role in funding Canadian private sector extractive projects and financial support for the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace.
The petitioners are profoundly concerned about the government's new direction with respect to CIDA, including the latest changes in budget 2013, and they call upon Parliament to adopt the following policy goals: first, to explore innovative solutions to development challenges that would respect the Canadian Official Development Assistance Accountability Act; second, to prioritize CIDA funding to experienced NGOs that Canadians support and which have seen their funding cut; and third, to demonstrate international responsibility by recommitting Canada to contribute .7% of GDP to official development assistance.