Canadians across the country have answered generously and donated almost $200 million to emergency assistance in Haiti. We have shown our solidarity with a population that has been terribly affected by the January 12, 2010, earthquake that killed over 250,000, injured thousands more and rendered over a million women, men and children homeless.

Haiti, the poorest of the poor countries in the Americas, was already the second largest recipient of Canadian aid programs, after Afghanistan. The Canadian government immediately committed to supporting reconstruction in Haiti, for as long as needed, in the short, medium and long term.

As commander-in-chief, the purpose of the working visit I made at the beginning of this month to Haiti, at the request of the Prime Minister, was to support the exceptional work being done by our soldiers to provide emergency assistance, to show the Haitian population how committed Canada is to working with them, and to go to Port-au-Prince, Léogâne and Jacmel to meet with representatives from civil society, as they must be included in the thought process and the reconstruction plan. It was also important to congratulate the people of the Dominican Republic for the remarkable contribution they have made to emergency operations and to encourage greater partnership between two countries who share an island and whose development is so closely linked.

This visit allowed us to see the devastation and the people working on the ground for ourselves, to listen to their concerns and the solutions within their reach, and to search for possibilities and hope, despite the rubble the country must now emerge from. It was a visit filled with meetings during which nothing was left to chance. We spoke a lot about the need to rethink the capital, its overpopulation, absence of construction regulations, and inadequate—or non-existent—infrastructure; about the urgent need to decentralize management and power to regions of the country that have been neglected for decades and to equip them with resources, investments and services to encourage viable human development; and about how important it is that the reconstruction plan create direct job across the country, promote the local and national economies, and make strengthening basic education, professional training and higher education a priority. We also talked about protecting an environment so seriously threatened by erosion and protecting the country’s architectural and cultural heritage.

Together with Canadian Ambassador Gilles Rivard, my husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, Gérald Tremblay, Mayor of Montreal, Port-au-Prince’s twin city, and President of the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, Mireille Mathieu, vice-rector for International Relations at the Université de Montréal, and Denyse Côté, founder of the Canadian organization Orégand—which has supported the initiatives and battles of the women’s movement in Haiti for years—, we saw, listened carefully, heard, and supported the efforts of representatives from various sectors of Haitian society who are key partners at a time they call a “re-foundation for a better Haiti.”

I will personally never forget this March 8, International Women’s Day, when 2,000 Haitian women came to Port-au-Prince to show their courage and determination so that life will decidedly triumph over the disaster in Haiti.