Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair. I was very interested in some of the final comments of my colleague, Lois Brown, who was talking about the fact that there has been an awareness on the part of this committee that there has to be something in a bigger picture, which is exactly what we're talkin

Foreign Affairs committee  First off, let me tell you about meeting with civil society. I was in Mongolia, if I recall, for four days. Most of my meetings were with the Mongolian civil service. Some meetings were with the executive, the Prime Minister's office. The President's office in Mongolia is now inv

Foreign Affairs committee  I have a quick comment. I think the last example Mark was using is a little bit off, at least from where I see it. Canada should not necessarily be going to the environment minister of the country and saying this is what you should do or this is how you can do it. The likelihood

Foreign Affairs committee  It's important in two respects. It is a continuation of the study, but I pointed out in the latter part of my verbal presentation that this is a very efficient program, which was recommended by the prior committee, of involving retired people. Now, having retired, I can tell you,

Foreign Affairs committee  Good. Thank you, Dave.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's a very good question, Dave. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg, I guess is really what you're asking. I believe what is part of this mix, part of the continuum, is the creation of a way in which the people of Mongolia, the people of Ghana, the people of whatever deve

Foreign Affairs committee  We have every right in the world to encourage them. I think what we have to be very careful about is that we don't end up lecturing them, or going after them, if you understand what I'm saying. To my mind, the whole purpose of democracy is to give a voice to the people of a nati

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely. I wouldn't say there are hundreds of countries. I'm saying there are probably a dozen or 20 countries, but very important countries, that have the potential for responsible resource extraction and wealth from that extraction. Jean-Paul and I were involved in a lunch

Foreign Affairs committee  Good afternoon. Thank you.

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely. The difficulty they have right at the moment is that they have a desire to move forward but they just simply don't have the parliamentary infrastructure with which they can control the businesses. The businesses, on the other hand, are also looking for there to be a

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, that's absolutely correct. The difficulty, as I say, is that when you go to countries like Ghana, who have had this excellent training, they are equipped to be able to move forward. I'm not suggesting for a second that we as Canadian parliamentarians—if you pardon me for

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to acknowledge the hard work of the clerk of the committee in getting this set up for us so that we could do this today. My name is Jim Abbott. I had the privilege of serving as a member of Parliament for Kootenay—Columbia through six electio