Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 27th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Dewar.

I'd like to go back to Mr. Dewar's question, because he was trying to relate the 2,500 troops to the number of foreign affairs workers we had.

The troops are there helping to deliver foreign policy, not only in the capacity of soldiers in a war. They are there to provide security so much of this work can go forward. So you have a working relationship with them. They are carrying out a lot of the dictates that come right from the Department of Foreign Affairs through the defence channels. Is that correct?

[Leonard Edwards]

That's right. The government has a strategy in Afghanistan, and we have a task force that coordinates that strategy. Each of us plays our role and we work together. We don't have a three-D strategy; we have a one-D strategy--we're all working together.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All right. Thank you.

Mr. Martin, do you have one quick question?

[Keith Martin, Liberal, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Yes.

Mirwais Hospital is in Kandahar. I understand that CIDA is giving the ICRC responsibility for it, and that's a great idea. Can you tell us how much money is going to be spent in Mirwais and what it will be used for?

The African education fund will go from $100 million to $150 million in 2010-11. What have we done with that money on the ground in Africa?

Thank you.

[Robert Greenhill]

First of all, the Red Cross-run Mirwais Hospital is a key partner in the south, as is the international community of the Red Cross across Afghanistan. We have already provided a $3-million grant to them.

Dr. Geoffrey Hodgetts, one of Canada's most experienced doctors in post-conflict situations, did a detailed review of Mirwais Hospital with the ICRC to help us understand the progress made, which he sees as being quite significant. Johns Hopkins did an analysis of the hospitals, and it showed that Mirwais Hospital was actually third out of 30 in Afghanistan. It's nothing to be proud of, given where the other 27 are, but it is an indication of progress. We'll be looking very closely at ways in which we can work with them while respecting the arm's-length humanitarian role that the ICRC so appropriately maintains. But we will be moving forward on that.

On your second question, about education in Africa, as we ramp up from $100 million to the $150 million, as outlined by Prime Minister Harper, we've been doing significant programming in Mali, Senegal, Tanzania, and Mozambique. In Mozambique we provide virtually all the textbooks for all the school children there. Some 10 million textbooks per year are provided through international competitive bids to ensure that children have access to texts as part of their learning experience.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Greenhill.

I want to thank the departments for coming here and answering the questions on the estimates--for the thorough report. We look forward to some of the additions you will send to our committee.

Just before we suspend, can I get consensus to report these estimates back to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We will suspend for a few minutes and come back on Bill C-9.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We'll call this meeting back to order.

In our second hour here, we'll be a little pressed for time, but I don't anticipate taking a long time considering Bill C-9, an act to implement the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States.

We're going to commence our clause-by-clause consideration of the bill. Pursuant to Standing Order 75(1), our consideration of clause 1 is postponed. So the chair will call clause 2. Because there have been no amendments brought forward, we'll just go through this quickly.

Madame Barbot, did you have a question?

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

In fact, it's still the same question, that is that we must reserve 15 minutes to deal with motions at the end of every meeting. This is the second time this situation has risen. We'll never have any time to devote to them. We really should find a way to set aside some time because we won't make any progress if we set the motions aside.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

To discuss Bill C-9?

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

We had agreed that a period of 15 minutes would be set aside at every meeting for motions. Once again today, we won't have the time to deal with them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

No.

We've already gone over this a number of times. The way I understand what we've done here is that we allow 15 minutes at the end of every meeting, if we know there's a request to deal with a motion. So we've asked people that if they want to deal with a motion on Tuesday, they should get hold of our clerk and she will then have that....

We have how many motions on the books?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mrs. Angela Crandall]

At the moment there are seven or eight.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

There are seven or eight motions. We can't deal with all of those motions, but if somebody wants a motion dealt with on a Tuesday, it doesn't mean we're going to close down at 12:45 and say goodbye to our guests and then have people say no, we don't want to deal with the motion.

So you have to talk to our clerk when you want to bring forward a motion under committee business.

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

From what I understand, if there are any motions on the table, we take 15 minutes to deal with them. They're already there: it's not as though there weren't any. We have to make sure that the motions at least have a chance to be considered.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

This goes right back to our first meeting: individuals can submit motions. They can submit three or four motions. Mr. Dewar, the very first day, had two or three motions that he presented. In the past I've seen some people present five motions, and say that when they want to bring them up they'll bring them up. What they do then is just let the clerk know they want to deal with their motion on Tuesday. That's the way we've always done it.

Once it has 48-hours' notice, the clerk will then say we need the time for committee business. Then we can go to it. Now, if the motions that are in are ones you want dealt with ASAP, then we will start every meeting saying that at 12:45 we're shutting down the committee and going to committee business.

If the motions are there and there's no rush to deal with them.... From a political perspective, I may think, you know what, they have their motions in here in a timely fashion, and they're in order. Maybe they're doing other work and want to have the proper ability to communicate the motions out in the news or media, and then they will let our clerk know and we will see that they're on the agenda.

But I'm not going to have.... If you want to have committee business every committee meeting, then just get hold of Angela and say yes, we want to deal with our motion, and then we'll do these every meeting for 15 minutes. But if no one brings them forward....

Mr. Wilfert's motion is actually on today's agenda. Is that the only one?

[The Clerk]

No, they're all there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

But I asked if anyone had called in about—

[The Clerk]

No, but the way the committee instructed me to deal with the business was to put them on until they were dealt with.

[Bryon Wilfert, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Mr. Chairman, that was my understanding: that they were on here, that we were going to deal with them, that we would reserve presumably 15 minutes or so until they're dealt with. I can't speak for my colleagues here, but I would assume we all thought they were priorities, regardless of what side we're on, because we brought them forward.

Because we're probably going to wind up with more motions down the road, I think it would be helpful to deal with these, get them off the table, and then move on. I certainly would support Madame Barbot with regard to time allocation for that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

If it's all right with the committee, we may....

What's that?

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Mr. Chair, we have government legislation. Can we move that forward?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We are on clause 2.

What I suggest is this. If that's the way we want to do this—and this is why I asked Angela if anyone had come forward asking for these—then we will allocate lots of time on Thursday for the motions.

If you have something that you absolutely want today, I'll apologize, then; I stand corrected on this. I will put it down every 15 minutes, then.

[Bryon Wilfert, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Mr. Chairman, I don't know whether this is helpful, but we certainly don't have any difficulty with the bill. Can we move the bill? Do we have to go clause by clause, or can we not move sections of the bill and then just move it forward?