Industry Committee on March 11th, 2008

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay.

Mr. Carrie, go ahead.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Because the committee doesn't have a role in this, I wanted to ask the clerk if that amendment is even in order. You're talking about net benefit, but I think I've been clear that nobody can really talk about those issues. I was wondering if I could ask the clerk if this is even in order.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

You can have the clerk respond, Mr. Carrie. But the committee can recommend or request what it wants. If it were to demand or explicitly state that the minister must.... Procedurally it's in order and substantively it's in order.

Is there any debate on the amendment by Mr. Brison?

Ms. Nash, go ahead.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

I have a question with respect to that wording of “net benefit to Canada”. I'd like to ask Mr. Brison whether his interpretation of that is that discussion of the remote sensing space system is included in the net benefit to Canada.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Brison, you may respond.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Yes, it is. I mean “net benefit” broadly.

Again, if somebody other than I made the amendment more general and took that out, I would have no difficulty with that.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

Mr. Carrie, do you have a comment?

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

I was wondering if I could add, as a friendly amendment to Mr. Brison, the president of the CSA as well as--

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

We've already added that. We took that as a subamendment byMr. Hanger, and I sensed no objection to that.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Could we add the ministers or their delegates? Do you just want the ministers? I'm just saying from a logistics standpoint.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

This is Mr. Brison's amendment. You can move that with respect to the main motion, after we deal with the amendment.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay, can we call the question, then, on the amendment of Mr. Brison?

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

The discussion is now on the main motion as amended.

Mr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Could I have the clerk read out the motion as amended?

[The Clerk]

In order to please the committee, I'll read the motion in its entirety thus far, including the amendment of Mr. Brison:

In light of testimony provided at the March 5th meeting of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, and taking into account the demonstrated impact of the proposed sale of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) on more than one government ministry; the Committee request that a representative of MDA, the Minister of Justice/Solicitor General, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of National Defence appear before the committee to provide testimony in regards to the proposed sale of MDA to Alliant Techsystems, before a decision concerning the sale is rendered under the Investment Canada Act, and that the Committee strongly recommend the Industry Minister exercise his right to extend the current forty-five (45) days period of the Investment Canada Act review by an additional thirty (30) days in order to enable more thorough evaluation of the transaction particularly terms of the net benefit test to Canada.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Is that clear for everyone?

Is there any discussion on the motion?

Mr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

I want to add, if possible, the ministers “or their delegates”.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

You would add, “or their delegate”, after each minister: the Minister of Justice/Solicitor General or their delegates.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

It would be “or their delegates”, yes. I don't whether we could say it after the group of them or after each one. Which would be grammatically correct?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

The intent is that the ministers or their delegates appear before the committee.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

We have until the 22nd. Bearing in mind that we have three days before the break and there has been no agreement on whether we are going to reconvene during the break period, if we seriously want to get some information on this, my recommendation would be to add “or their delegates”.

The window of opportunity is either tomorrow afternoon or Thursday or perhaps Friday sometime to get the ministers here. We haven't contacted the ministers' offices--we have somebody here who was a minister in the past--and logistically I see getting them here within three days as a challenge. It's not impossible. If we leave it open to the delegates, I think we might be able to get those people here for the second hour on Thursday.

Whatever the committee would like to do, of course, is up to the committee, but that would be my recommendation.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you, Mr. Carrie.

I'm going to have the clerk read the amendment.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you.

[The Clerk]

I'll begin on the fourth line of the English version, after the semi-colon:

the Committee request that a representative of MDA, the Minister of Justice/Solicitor General, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of National Defence, or their delegates, appear before the committee....