Finance Committee on Feb. 24th, 2015

[Eric Lemieux]

I agree with my two colleagues.

It's difficult to quantify this. As I was saying, the important thing is to add another cog to the wheel in order to take advantage of great business development opportunities. I do, however, want to point out that we need significant support from the government because of the way the numbers work in this area.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you for making your presentations and answering our questions.

Thank you very much for being here and participating in our study.

Colleagues, I have one brief item of business today, which is approval of the budget. I understand Mr. Saxton's motion and Mr. Cullen's motion will be on Thursday.

Can I get someone to move the budget for this study we are currently doing?

(Motion agreed to)

The budget is approved.

Mr. Saxton.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

It was our intention to deal with my motion today and Mr. Cullen's motion on Thursday.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay, you do want to deal with your motion today?

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

That was the point, yes. I don't know where Mr. Cullen is or why he thought it was on Thursday.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

We can deal with your motion today.

At this time, I will thank our witnesses. I'll excuse them. They can stay and watch the debate on the motion if they wish.

Thank you so much, gentlemen here in Ottawa and others, for being with us here.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

I just want to thank Ms. Ecker and just let her know that B.C. has some excellent icewine that can be exported to the Chinese.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you. I appreciate that.

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

Nova Scotia does as well.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Really? You have icewine in Nova Scotia?

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

It's from the Annapolis Valley.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

You have ice. Man, have you got ice.

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

Trust me. People are whining about it.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Everyone should have Mr. Saxton's motion before them.

Mr. Saxton, I'll ask you to present your motion.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

By now, most members of the committee have seen the letter from the Minister of Financeto the committee requesting that we study the issue of terrorist financing, which is a very troubling issue right now.

I recently came back from a NATO conference in Brussels, and terrorist financing was a big part of NATO's main concerns right now. Obviously, if we could make some inroads into stopping financing for terrorist organizations, that would put a major hurdle up for them and stop them from growing and expanding as they have been in recent months and years. That's why this is an issue of priority; it's an issue of priority for the Minister of Finance as well as for our government and therefore, it should also be an issue of priority for the finance committee. I think it's something that Canadians care about and are concerned about and therefore, the Minister of Finance has requested that we study the issue of terrorist financing.

My recommendation is that we begin the study after the second break week in March, which would be Tuesday, March 24. Depending on how many witnesses we're able to secure, we'll decide at a later date how many meetings are dedicated to this study. That being said, I think Mr. Adler wanted to add something.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Adler, go ahead, please.

[Mark Adler, Conservative, York Centre, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I want to thank the Minister of Finance for requesting the finance committee to undertake this study and for Parliamentary Secretary Saxton for his remarks just now.

Certainly this is an important study that we need to undertake. We have seen in the past that certain organizations here in Canada have undertaken to raise money domestically that has been sent to terrorist organizations abroad. Clearly we need to investigate whether or not additional organizations are doing the same thing.

Certainly within my own community in York Centre, a number of my constituents have come forward to me, and have recommended for a while now that we undertake such a study to determine whether or not organizations are raising money here in Canada to send abroad for use in terrorist activities.

I fully support this motion and I would encourage the opposition members to do the same. It's an important issue for Canada, an important issue in our role to defeat terrorism on the world stage. Given the recent attacks here in Canada, both in Quebec and Ottawa, and on a daily basis we see them in Copenhagen, in Paris, in northern Iraq, and Syria. With the greatest urgency we need to conduct a thorough investigation of the potential for the domestic financing of terrorist organizations abroad.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much, Mr. Adler.

Mr. Côté, go ahead.

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am not questioning the basic significance of the study. However, I am really worried about the way the study will be used, given the Conservative government's priorities. And that's really unfortunate. Motions on other issues have been moved, especially on an issue of particular importance at this time. Canada is facing major challenges, including the changing oil prices and all the resulting consequences. That issue is especially urgent.

I am referring to concerns this situation entails for provincial governments, especially those of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. Some Canadian families are faced with the immediate problem of job loss or the need to find employment opportunities more locally. It's really disappointing to see this issue being rejected.

As for the proposed topic, I would like to remind the members of this committee that a Senate committee has also examined the matter. Many of the recommendations submitted following that study were incorporated into omnibus Bill C-31. So some work has already been done on the topic.

What I'm really worried about is that we may potentially be taking up the committee's attention and resources to carry out a study that will probably deal with issues that have already been considered elsewhere and for which we may not have anything really new to propose.

I agree that it's important to identify the source of the money used to finance terrorist activities around the world. That said, we could have turned our attention to that matter before, as the Senate did. We could have done so in 2012 or 2013, as terrorist financing was already a known problem back then.

It seems to me that a study is always being requested in response to events and that we are lagging behind instead of anticipating those events. As for the proposal and the insistence of Conservative Party members, I think it's really deplorable that they want to do this now.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you, Mr. Côté.

Mr. Dionne Labelle, the floor is yours.

[Pierre Dionne Labelle, NDP, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thought we had agreed that the study on the impact of the renminbi hub would enable us to discuss the oil price drop and its impact on the economy. I thought that was what our friends opposite had implied. They are now putting forward a different list of priorities, whereby terrorist financing sources in Canada come before the impacts of falling oil prices on the Canadian economy.

Yet that impact is so significant that the government has pushed back the budget presentation to be able to come up with the revenues it needs to achieve its objectives. Clearly, unemployment is directly related to this. Many companies are hit hard by the situation. I would think that would be a priority for Canada.

I think our friends have stopped listening to me. I have no illusions about the outcome of today's debate, but I would just like to remind you that we made a commitment to discuss the impact of oil prices on the Canadian economy. We should study Mr. Cannan's motion before we move on to the motion Mr. Saxton put forward today.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

We'll go to Mr. Saxton, and then Mr. Brison.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Thank you, Chair. Through you, I want to respond to my colleagues Monsieur Dionne Labelle and Monsieur Côté. They are suggesting that there are other immediate problems that are more important than terrorist financing.

I'd like to ask them what the other issues are that are more important than terrorist financing right now—through you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Well, okay, I have Mr. Brison on the list next, so why don't I go to Mr. Brison, and then we'll come back to them?

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Thanks.