International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It is a great honour to speak after Mr. Colin Robertson and Mr. Augustin Barrios, who I have known for a long time, as well as Mr. Armando Ortega, who I have not met before. First of all, I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to present a few points of view relating to Canada West and to the prospect of long-term work with North America.

International Trade committee  Are you going to Colin next, or to me?

Foreign Affairs committee  I would underline the importance of contacts that would go beyond Parliament, but they absolutely have to start with Parliament. You have to have more contacts throughout Canada, so this has to be a whole-of-Canada exercise. Leadership can come from the government, but both the private sector in Canada and the provinces really have to step up to the table.

Foreign Affairs committee  I can't comment on all of them. In western Canada we buy cars. We don't do much in the production of trucks but the vehicle business in terms of selling trucks and transportation equipment to Mexico has been good for us, as it has been for other countries with whom we signed free trade agreements.

Foreign Affairs committee  CentrePort's doing quite well. They're looking at investments from Mexico in CentrePort and businesses into CentrePort. The Mexicans are looking to open a consulate in Winnipeg, which would give them the same coverage in Canada as in the United States. They would be the only country to have that significant coverage in Canada, and it's because business is booming.

Foreign Affairs committee  Ambassador Wilson and I are in sync on this. Your question, Mr. Dewar, is a very good one. It's helping to refine the thinking about this issue in response to the TPP. Here's the issue. A broader agenda for North America can be put together by things we want to talk about, things we need, and things we think we can get away with with the Americans—things to which they'll agree.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would note that I would actually agree with Mr. Wilson's agenda for a broader vision with the United States, but I would nuance this by saying that the agenda has to come out of a response to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Again, when we go from a table of three to a table of 13, it is going to have profound impacts on our access, our privileged and unique access that we've had for 20 years to the U.S.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would say that there are several weak links on the Mexican side. There are issues with security of information and personnel. We've had some success with the RCMP going down. Colin's actually in a better place to talk about military cooperation, assistance, and training. Again, we also just don't have the experience with things like Plan Colombia in knowing how they work, but the crucial element is just having people down.

Foreign Affairs committee  I am going to swim against the current and state that we have to follow the lead of the premiers. We're seeing leadership at the provincial level and I think also with the governors in the U.S., so follow the lead of the premiers.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Ms. Brown. Thank you for the welcome back, too. On the security issue, I would note that we have to delink security from the visa issue. As your colleague Mr. Trottier pointed out, it's tied to refugees and false refugee claimants or disputed refugee claimants. Mexico is a security challenge for the United States—it's not a security challenge for Canada—just as the United States is a security challenge for Canada.

Foreign Affairs committee  In my opinion, there was no great impact. It is well known in each country's political circles that the Prime Minister of Canada had no other choice but to cancel the conference, given the political situation at the time in Canada, with the possibility of an election and everything else.

Foreign Affairs committee  Just very quickly on the visas, you'll have the Mexican ambassador here, I think, and that's the type of conversation that really needs to occur with the government and the population in Mexico. I would note that the issues are larger than just Mexico. Canada is the last APEC economy to adopt the APEC business travel card.

Foreign Affairs committee  I can't speak for the government, or the ministry responsible, or the CBSA.

Foreign Affairs committee  Okay. That we can answer. Yes, it is. The issue with the visas and Mexico has less to do now with the visas themselves and more with the perception in Mexico of the treatment by the Canadian government of the issue. There is a feeling in Mexico.... I am reporting this. I am not the source of this.

Foreign Affairs committee  There are things we can do now. The announcement—I think yesterday—of the energy ministers and the secretary agreeing is part of the idea of incrementalism. The incremental approach is key. We have to keep this under the radar screen for those people who talk in terms like TAFTA.