Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 13th, 2007

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

I suggest an amendment.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

No, I don't want any of your amendments.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Madam McDonough.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

I speak strongly in support of this motion. I think it's a reflection of repeated representations before the committee.

I don't want to follow the partisan rabbit tracks, but the reality is that this plea has been made again and again, with very good documentation from the food grains folks, from the food security network. Most recently again, I think it is a very appropriate follow-up to the witnesses we heard just a couple of weeks ago. I would hope that in a spirit of unanimity, we would respond appropriately.

I think we've all seen the reasons why this is so incredibly important. I hope it would be a positive signal that we're asking that this be implemented. At a later date, if we want to hear more details, fine. But I'd hate to see the date and the proposal to have witnesses become an obstacle to our passing this today without reservation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Madame Lalonde.

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

I too am extremely pleased to see this proposal, all the more so because we all observed, at the time of the study on the policy for foreign affairs, that this is cruelly lacking.

Several witnesses came to tell us that in under-developed countries, in particular, between 60 and 80% of the people are dependent upon agriculture. I am in full agreement with the idea that agriculture be considered with the context of sustainable development.

We must vote on this now and plan into our schedule the appearance of a witness from CIDA to come and discuss this with us.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Madame Lalonde.

Mr. Goldring.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

I certainly think it's an excellent motion, but I also feel and sense from the parties opposite that it's important we bring this about with unanimity, instead of trying to tinker with it and perhaps spoiling something on which we really could get together and come together to sign and agree on. If there are amendments or whatever, I think it's important to consider that factor and consider that the important thing here is to show unanimity.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All right.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

That's not what I said before. I will follow through on what Ms. McDonough said. It's okay to push this motion through, but we'll follow through with CIDA officials coming here and explaining the...

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Well, the motion will, as it stands, but certainly we're open to having CIDA here at a later date. I too want to thank Mr. Obhrai for bringing this forward. This motion recognizes the importance of agriculture. We know that in our study of Haiti and of other countries, so much frustration was talked about in regards to providing food but not really being able to get any kind of sustainable agriculture up and going, so...kudos.

I'll just put my two cents in here: if this can be passed unanimously, it would be a real treat.

Anyway, I'll call the question.

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Will we have what he puts on the motion?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

CIDA will appear at a later date, and we'll be able to bring this up sometime, but it won't be part of the motion.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

We can always put another motion later on--

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Yes, but you're always against our motion. That's the problem.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

No, no, we won't be against. CIDA's here, they can be asked. They'll be here in regard to other matters as well, and we will ask them about this motion that received unanimous support. What are they going to do? I think they are quite open to this.

(Motion agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

Now I'm in your hands. We're at 11:40, and I was going to go until 11:15 and give 15 minutes for committee business.

How long is this going to take, Madam McDonough?

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Well, I think we can deal with this very quickly in the spirit of unanimity and the spirit of giving a strong signal.

Frankly, I've had this motion before the committee now for at least two and a half months, so I'm not really happy at the idea of having it bumped by ones that came in very much later.

I really hope we can recognize that if there's one thing around the world that people associate with Canada's leadership on the meaningful security front, one thing that's enduring and that never stops giving to children, to elderly people, and to the vulnerable, it's the land mines leadership and bringing in the land mines treaty. It's very much in that spirit and that tradition that this motion comes forward, following a lot of public education, to actually call upon ourselves, our Parliament, and our government to step forward in the same spirit and support the call for the ban on cluster bombs.

I don't know anybody who could seriously advocate that cluster bombs should be permitted in today's world. We know they are intended to damage people and kill them. After wars are over, what could be more heartbreaking than to have people finally achieve a peaceful resolution of a violent conflict, only to find that the most vulnerable in society are killed through cluster bombs that go off because there is no way to protect people from them?

I don't want to go on and on; I just want to say that it's very timely, because in Oslo at least 26 countries, and I don't know how many more, are coming together on February 21 to move forward on this agenda. I think we're all very pleased to know that Canada is sending representation to that meeting. What could make us prouder and make others respect us more around the world than to see us providing this kind of leadership around cluster bombs, consistent with what we did on land mines?

Therefore I so move.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

I'll come back to committee business, and I apologize for this little bit of division. We have other meetings, I know, at 12 o'clock. Even the subcommittee of this committee is meeting. What we're jeopardizing here is the steering committee.

Are we in favour of continuing with this motion and postponing the steering committee until possibly tomorrow or Thursday? Oh, Thursday we have a conference. It would be sometime on Wednesday or Thursday.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Mr. Chair, can we just bring this motion to the question?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

No, you can't just bring these to the question.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Yes, we can.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Well, then, if we don't have mutual consent, do we...?

Anyway, we're going to forfeit our steering committee. Are we all in favour of that?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All right.

Mr. Obhrai.