Mr. Speaker, my comments refer to the current Prime Minister. I think we all know which prime minister we are talking about. I will leave those who are watching to figure out which prime minister the reference is being made to.
The Prime Minister announced $20 million over a four-year period in support of the EITI and the extractive industries technical advisory facility. This support was announced at the francophonie session in Kinshasa, which oddly enough, or ironically enough, happens to be in the capital of a country that has been kicked out of EITI, or is currently suspended, because it is not compliant with EITI.
Canada is trying to support this initiative. I invite members to go to the EITI website. What they will see is that this is an initiative that essentially involves the countries in which the extraction will take place getting involved and demonstrating that they are living up to certain standards.
A map reveals those countries that are candidate countries, those that are full members and those that have become members and then have failed to comply and have been kicked out. They essentially cover a swath across Central Africa and Central Asia. They are the countries that are rich in resources but have a history of very problematic resource extraction, bribery, corruption, unsafe practices, human rights violations, and so on, and in which an effort is being made to correct this situation, sometimes not with full success.
By participating in this kind of process, and indeed, in helping to fund it and make sure it is on a sound financial footing, Canada is having a real impact and a better impact than we could have with any other method.
I want to mention a few other things we are doing here. There is the Canadian International Institute for Extractive Industries and Development, which the parliamentary secretary mentioned earlier. Canada is the largest founding donor of the African Minerals Development Centre, which promotes best practices and mining policy and management throughout Africa.
Canada is a major player. We are a responsible player. Our companies are the players that are most desired, for our skills, our expertise, and our substantial capitalization, by all of the countries in which resource extraction is going on. That means that we have, to a certain extent, the capacity to impose reasonable standards on those countries, and we should take care to do that responsibly.
We should not be shy about the responsibility that entails for us. We should do that in a way that ensures that we move forward on a level playing field, where all other competitors are also working towards those higher standards, and not cause ourselves to be in a situation where we are unfairly hobbled in the competition with those countries. That would not accomplish anything at all.