Foreign Affairs committee  We certainly adhere to that concept of training and capacity-building. This is why we are a government that no longer engages in any significant amount of infrastructure building, for example, because that would not be focused on building up the capabilities. We have any number o

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm not aware of any change in the approval process or any delegated authority that is different from previous years, but I'd be very happy to provide additional detail later.

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't believe there's been any change in that practice. The vast majority of all decisions are taken at the officials level when they adhere to our policy. A very, very small number go to ministers. However, I will validate that statement for you. I do not believe there's bee

Foreign Affairs committee  As I say, I believe that the practice remains the same as it has been in many years. The only difference that we are now engaged with is our adherence to the Arms Trade Treaty, which will embed the criteria of this international treaty in our decision-making processes. However,

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll have to give you the answer to that later, where—

Foreign Affairs committee  The government has made a commitment to adhere to the Arms Trade Treaty, and under that commitment, which should be made official in a matter of months, there will be an annual report.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'd be happy to provide that answer to you.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll also have to provide that answer to you later.

Foreign Affairs committee  We'll certainly provide that to you later on.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. I now understand where you were going with your question. Indeed, we received some new funding in the budget to deal with democracy promotion, and in particular, electoral observation. For all issues we always have a focal point in our department so that there is one

Foreign Affairs committee  It's a core component of the feminist international assistance policy. It stands alone with all of the other elements, and all of those elements are meant to be integrated when we go abroad. It's an area, as I've mentioned, that has received new funding. We've clarified the lines

Foreign Affairs committee  I think the simple and short answer to your question is that everybody owns the democracy file at Global Affairs. It's not something for which we want to create a silo and give entire responsibility. My colleagues who deal with the geographic components of the department all have

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm Mark Gwozdecky, Assistant Deputy Minister, International Security and Political Affairs.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would like to remind colleagues of the situation around North Korea not more than about 10 months ago when missile tests were being conducted, where the level of rhetoric was very extreme, and there was a deep sense of worry that tensions might boil over. At that time Minister