Foreign Affairs committee  I'm not sure if I understood the statistics correctly, but the overall point I do agree with is that those percentages are probably correct in terms of the people who need aid, as a denominator, and the people who are actually receiving it. Unfortunately, because of the amount

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, I can quickly, in 10 seconds. When I was in Quetta, we made sure that we were meeting with all of the faith groups there: a significant Hindu community, a Sikh community and a Christian community. Where we can, I think, as humanitarian actors, as NGOs, we do try to make sur

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely. I think the more Canada can do to live up to its international commitments...it will go a long way toward making sure that Canada has a leadership position on the global stage on these important initiatives. Definitely, more is better.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you so much for the question. I think, really, in some cases Pakistan is maybe at ground zero for a climate change impact. I saw first-hand and heard from the teams on the ground that the same area that's been flooded for so many years had extreme drought-like conditions.

Foreign Affairs committee  I can take a stab at it first. Thank you so much for the question. The economic crisis is global. We've seen inflationary pressures throughout the world, including here in Canada. A developing country like Pakistan has been impacted by that in a very significant way. The ability

Foreign Affairs committee  Even within the province, in different villages, you'll find different needs. Sometimes the water has not receded, so the needs of that community are much different, whereas in some other villages, even at the village level, you will get into early recovery. We've also seen from

Foreign Affairs committee  Is this better?

Foreign Affairs committee  As I was saying, the needs are different even at different village levels. In some cases, we've seen water-borne diseases. We've seen early recovery activities in terms of livelihood recovery, so we give that flexibility to our teams on the ground who are directly working at the

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely. Our programs team here is collaborating at a minimum on a weekly basis with our team in Pakistan. We do lean on their expert advice on what they're seeing to approve any allocation of the funding.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. The CRA, for example, has a lot of requirements for Canadian charities when they're working with foreign projects. I know there's been a lot of movement on that. Compared to multilateral and compared to the UN agencies, Canadian charities have a very

Foreign Affairs committee  It's no problem.

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. In terms of any government funding that's provided, there are reporting requirements back to the government on how the funds were spent, with—

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't have the specific facts and figures, but we do know that Canada has a positive reputation throughout the world. We feel that it can do more. It can do more to help developing countries, like Pakistan and countries throughout Africa. It can do more to increase the amount o

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you so much, Mr. Chair and committee members, for discussing the situation in Pakistan. Islamic Relief Canada is part of a global family, a global network. In Pakistan specifically, our teams have been active for more than 30 years. Currently, we have 400 staff members thr