Finance Committee on May 17th, 2012
Evidence of meeting #60 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was information.
A recording is available from Parliament.
On the agenda
MPs speaking
Also speaking
- Martine Lajoie Chief, Sectoral Policy Analysis, Transport and Corporate Analysis, Economic Development and Corporate Finance Branch, Department of Finance
- Maxime Beaupré Senior Economist, Sectoral Policy Analysis, Transport and Corporate Analysis, Economic Development and Corporate Finance Branch, Department of Finance
- Daniel Macdonald Chief, Federal-Provincial Relations Division, CHT/CST and Northern Policy, Department of Finance
- Nicholas S. Wise Excutive Director, Strategic Policy, Priorities and Planning, Treasury Board Secretariat
- Christiane Allard Advisor, Strategic Policy, Priorities and Planning, Treasury Board Secretariat
- Sue Foster Director General, Policy, Quality and Appeals Directorate, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
- Peter Edwards Acting Corporate Secretary, Corporate Secretariat, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
- Peter Boyd Director General and Departmental Security Officer, Integrity Services Branch - Internal Integrity and Security, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development
- Margaret Strysio Director, Strategic Planning and Reporting, Parks Canada Agency
- Jonah Mitchell Assistant Director, Parks Canada Agency
- Stephen Bolton Director, Border Law Enforcement Strategies Division, Public Safety Canada
- Superintendent Joe Oliver Director General, Border Integrity, Federal and International Operations, Department of Public Safety
12:05 p.m.
NDP
12:05 p.m.
Director, Strategic Planning and Reporting, Parks Canada Agency
They estimated $590,000.
12:05 p.m.
NDP
12:05 p.m.
Director, Strategic Planning and Reporting, Parks Canada Agency
I would suppose so.
12:05 p.m.
NDP
Hoang Mai Brossard—La Prairie, QC
So in terms of cost savings, do you know how much...? So it's about 3,700 hours per year in terms of the Auditor General doing the work for an annual report...?
12:05 p.m.
Director, Strategic Planning and Reporting, Parks Canada Agency
Yes.
12:05 p.m.
NDP
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair James Rajotte
Thank you.
I want to thank our officials from Parks Canada for being here today and for giving an overview of that division. We appreciate your time with us.
Colleagues, we did divisions 10 and 11 last night, so we will be moving to division 12, on the Integrated Cross-Border Law Enforcement Operations Act.
With us we have Joe Oliver—the real Joe Oliver.
12:05 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair James Rajotte
To address this, we have Mr. Oliver from the RCMP.
Mr. Oliver, if you want to give an overview of this division, then we'll have questions from members.
May 17th, 2012 / 12:05 p.m.
Stephen Bolton Director, Border Law Enforcement Strategies Division, Public Safety Canada
Actually, I'm Stephen Bolton, from the Department of Public Safety.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
12:05 p.m.
Director, Border Law Enforcement Strategies Division, Public Safety Canada
My colleague from the RCMP, Joe Oliver, is in security, and he's on his way up.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair James Rajotte
Welcome to the committee, Mr. Bolton.
Please give us an overview of this division.
12:05 p.m.
Director, Border Law Enforcement Strategies Division, Public Safety Canada
Of course.
Joe Oliver of the RCMP will be joining us momentarily, when he gets through security.
I'm here to speak to the Shiprider operation part of the BIA. Division 12 of the BIA is required to implement regular Shiprider operations between Canada and the United States. Shiprider enables specially trained and designated Canadian and U.S. law enforcement officers to conduct seamless, continuous law enforcement operations across the border on shared waters. This new and innovative cooperative policing model not only leverages law enforcement resources more efficiently, but has proven to be a more effective method of detecting and interdicting cross-border criminality.
Just to give you a sense of it, the idea is that there would be police law enforcement vessels in shared waters on the Canada-U.S. border, and they would be jointly crewed by Canadian and U.S. law enforcement. It's very important to note that all Shiprider operations will be conducted under the direction and control of law enforcement officers of the host country, so in Canada under the control and direction of Canadian law enforcement, and in Canada it would be conducted in accordance with Canadian laws, policies, and procedures, and the same on the U.S. side.
Looking at some of the key elements of this legislation, the act would define the scope of operations for Shiprider; specify the authorities being granted to designated officers; outline the role of the Canadian central authority, which would be responsible for managing the day-to-day operations; specify the appointment process, including the mandatory criteria for appointment; outline how the seizure of goods and detention of persons are to be managed in Canada; and establish a civilian oversight mechanism for the conduct of designated officers.
Legislation seeking to implement Shiprider has twice been introduced to Parliament, the latest being former Bill S-13, which died on the order paper when Parliament was dissolved in March 2011.
Regularizing Shiprider operations will permit the government to realize one of the key law enforcement commitments in the Beyond the Border action plan between Canada and the United States. Importantly, it would also allow Canada to ratify the Shiprider framework agreement signed by the public safety minister and the homeland secretary back in May 2009. With this legislation in place, it is hoped that regular Shiprider operations could be implemented this summer.
This is the mounted cavalry riding in. This is my colleague, Joe Oliver, director general, border integrity, RCMP.