Foreign Affairs committee  I do. Mr. Chair, I was just going to reinforce what Michael said with respect to CIDA programming. The core mandate of CIDA has not changed. It has in fact been enshrined in legislation now. We all have day jobs, and while this is going to be a complex business, our day jobs a

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, it's difficult to make generalizations about the extent of the consultations in individual countries. Consultations absolutely did take place. Whether they happened before the announcement to proceed with amalgamation, or after, I can't speak to that. Certainly—and I'm

Foreign Affairs committee  Sorry, when you said the target missions, do you mean the specific countries where we do activities? Yes. Right now we have 20 countries of focus, and about 15 to 16 countries have a modest presence. Those certainly will not be changed because of amalgamation. We're always loo

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely. Right now, our programming goes up to 2015, so we're more or less in the middle of a five-year program to spend $1.1 billion in new money, and $1.75 billion in ongoing money. Therefore, we will continue that work up until at least 2015.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think there's been a great deal of alignment between development and our foreign policy priorities already. I think amalgamation is going to take that next step, up our game, so to speak. If you look at foreign policy in the broad objectives for Canada at the moment—which I wou

Foreign Affairs committee  I wouldn't say they're just complementary. You do have some terminology that is almost identical in the two acts. Secondly, I'd leave it up to the committee whether they'd like to make a recommendation with respect to actually referencing the ODAAA in the new legislation.

Foreign Affairs committee  Perhaps I can take a first crack at that, Mr. Chair. When we talk about Canadian values, I'd say a couple of things. First of all, in the ODAAA, as we call it, the Official Development Assistance Accountability Act, we have a definition of values. There are references to inclusi

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. What I'd say is that, first of all, the ODAAA is still there. These are two separate acts, obviously, but I also feel that they're quite complementary. I think that's a good thing. Central to the ODAAA is making poverty alleviation the core component of our

Foreign Affairs committee  Not at all, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much. Really, I can't add much to what Michael said, just a couple of points. This is definitely an emerging trend, and so as we look around at our development partners and other donor countries, a lot of them have gone this way. I've had a

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'd be in the same position, Mr. Chair, so not really in a position to speak to the consultations ahead of the actual budget announcement. As with Nadir, I can say that right after the budget announcement there was widespread communication within the agency. There was actually

Foreign Affairs committee  I have 20 seconds. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. What proposed section 14 says is that humanitarian assistance will be aligned with Canadian values and priorities. So certainly, in terms of alignment with values, I don't think there's going to be any issue there. I think one

Foreign Affairs committee  For myself, I was informed on the day of the budget. Again, as Nadir points out, with budget secrecy being what it is, that's to be expected. Also, keep in mind I was out of the country at the time. I was in Senegal on business.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Nadir. Good morning, committee members. I'd like to highlight a few aspects of the proposed legislation that are specific to CIDA and the role of development and humanitarian assistance in the new department. First, under the proposed legislation, Canada's assistance