Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Good morning, colleagues. This is meeting 44 of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on Thursday, December 3, 2009.

Our orders of the day include a return to our committee's study of Bill C-300, an act respecting corporate accountability for the activities of mining, oil, or gas in developing countries. We have a number of people who are going to testify before us today. We have votes at 10:15, so we've asked the guests if they are willing to appear together and they have agreed.

Committee members, you should have a steering committee report in front of you. On Tuesday morning your steering committee met and a number of items were discussed. I'm going to give you one moment to take a look at that report, which we put before you for your consideration today.

On the first point of that report, you'll note that the steering committee recommends that the minister of CIDA appear before our committee on the supplementary estimates. She has been invited and is scheduled--

[A voice]

She's not available.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

So she cannot come.

[Jim Abbott, Conservative, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

My understanding is that the president of CIDA will be available.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All right. So we've asked for Tuesday next week on the suplementaries. Many times they just get reported back. We have one week to do it. It has to be on Tuesday, because they have to be reported after that.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair....

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Go ahead.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I think it's one of the roles of this committee to ask that the minister come before the committee. When did we give notice on this to the minister? Did we not agree to invite the minister when we were planning--

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

No. This is something that every time--

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I'd like to get some clarification here. When we were doing our planning for this committee, had we not set aside a date to hear from the minister?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

No.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I thought we had.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We did last Tuesday at steering committee.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Before that, when we were doing long-term planning, I thought we had--

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We invited Minister Kent on Honduras, but not on the supplementaries.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I guess I'd like to know what the formal response is from the minister as to why she can't attend on Tuesday. I thank Mr. Abbott for letting us know. But the normal state of affairs for a committee when you invite the minister is that unless there's something extremely important and she can't attend, it's worthwhile to hear directly from the minister. I'm hearing third-hand that she can't attend.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Let me just interrupt for one second.

Normally the invitation doesn't go out until we have cleared the steering committee to make certain we want the minister to appear.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Understood.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We took the initiative to invite her regardless. She is previously booked for Tuesday, so her schedule does not allow it. From what I've heard right now, the president of CIDA or whoever we want.... If we had another week the minister might have been able to appear.

Madame Lalonde.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Mr. Chair, when we discussed, at the steering committee, we wanted to invite the minister for an entire two-hour meeting and the Auditor General for another two-hour session. In the end, to accommodate everyone, we decided to invite them both the same day. If the minister is unable to appear, I propose that the Auditor General be invited for the full period.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

I think if you check, the way we left it at steering committee was that we would invite the Auditor General to appear in February. We talked about having her come in the second hour.

Isn't that right, Mr. Patry?

We eventually said let's just get the Auditor General. I think Mr. Wilfert was the one who suggested that there were no timelines on the AG, so let's get the--

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

That's fine, but the minister would have to come back.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Mr. Abbott, Mr. Patry, and Mr. Dewar.

[Jim Abbott, Conservative, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mr. Chair, I think your point is germane. This report has not been accepted. The minister has not been invited. So I am advising that upon probable acceptance of this report we will find that the minister's schedule does not permit. However, the president is available. She will come and testify with respect to CIDA and she is available for a second hour if the committee wants, to talk specifically to the AG report on CIDA.

So we're trying to be as....

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Accomodating.