Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 27th, 2007

[Brian Pallister, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

I'm sorry, Mr. Greenhill; I have such a short amount of time. I appreciate your expanding on the intent of the program, but what I asked you was how you are going to track the results. I'd like you to specifically address that question, please.

[Robert Greenhill]

Unlike other approaches that wait until the end of the program, meaning it's three to five years before results are seen, our approach in this case is to actually determine the mortality and morbidity rates—the illness rates—in the regions before we go in, and then we're working with Johns Hopkins University and other world-class researchers to track, on an annual basis, the changes in mortality rates thanks to our interventions. We'll be able to come back to Canadians with very specific reductions in mortality, thanks to this package of interventions we were just talking about.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Greenhill.

Mr. Obhrai is next.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Thank you.

Thank you for coming. It's always good to see you here, talking about our foreign policy and CIDA policy.

The issue of concern lately is the passport issue, which keeps coming back in Parliament. Parliamentarians are extremely concerned on this passport issue, due to this U.S. requirement at the border.

I know you have taken some initiatives out there to expedite the issuing of passports. What I really want to know about is the timeframe. With all these initiatives you have taken—the guarantees and all these things—have we actually managed to reduce the timeframe of issuing passports? We understand it is going up, but the key element that is really facing questioning is whether we have actually reduced the time.

[Leonard Edwards]

Thank you for that question.

Yes, indeed, we have reduced the time. I won't hide from you the fact that it has required an enormous effort.

The increase in the number of passports issued over the last year indicates the size of the increase in demand. We have actually issued 45% to 46% more passports this year, since April, than we did in a similar period last year. That means we are predicting somewhere around 4.7 million passports will be issued this year. Those are the bare numbers.

In terms of the service standards, I have here my head of passports, who can answer in a little more detail if you like, but basically at one point earlier this year we were dealing with a 60-day wait time for mail-in applications. I should explain that most passports in Canada are obtained through our offices, of which we have 33 in Canada; those passports are issued within the service standards of 10 business days, so in terms of wait times, we're really talking about the mail-in applications.

At one point earlier this summer the mail-in wait times were around 60 days before you would get a passport. Our service standards there are 20 working days. We're now down somewhere around 25 to 28 working days, so there have been significant improvements in our service standards for mail-ins.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Obhrai.

We'll go to Mr. Dewar.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our guests for their opening remarks.

I'm going to start with Darfur. We've been talking about that a little bit.

I just wanted to bring to your attention the fact that the UN, as recently as this week, said that the mission we're all hoping will go ahead will fail unless countries can provide helicopters and lorries—this is actually a BBC report, so they say “lorries”—and that the deployment is to begin in six weeks.

On August 2 we had Mr. MacKay, who was then Minister of Foreign Affairs, announce the $48 million in aid for Darfur. He told us the money would go towards providing fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, fuelling, and training. We keep hearing that the mission on the ground is without helicopters, so where is the money, or where are the helicopters? Can you help me with that? I'm looking at the appropriations here and I'm looking at the announcements of the government. I'm trying to put these two things together, and I'm hearing from the UN that this mission is not going to go ahead unless they have the supplies.

My understanding is that we have helicopters. I've seen it announced by the government. I've seen money announced there for it—so where are the helicopters?

[Leonard Edwards]

Let me try to answer that, and maybe I can ask an expert to come forward if you need more detail.

Basically, what has happened is that the moneys that you are referring to have indeed been used—

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

So they've been spent.

[Leonard Edwards]

—to lease helicopters and they have been available. It was about $40 million over the first six months and another $40 million in the last six months of this year. Now that we're—

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

So we leased helicopters from another country?

[Leonard Edwards]

Yes, we did.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Okay, and they're in Darfur?

[Leonard Edwards]

They are.

Now, the question that has been facing the new UN mission, which is a much more—

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

No, that's the one I'm talking about, the one that hasn't got going yet.

[Leonard Edwards]

Well, we were supplying helicopters to the AMIS mission.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

No, I'm talking about the one that's.... Resolution 1769.

[Leonard Edwards]

Now the new mission will be a UN paid-for and organized joint program.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Right. So are we providing helicopters for that mission?

[Leonard Edwards]

We will not be.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

We will not be. Okay, so when I read the minister saying that they provided...that was for the old mission. We're not providing for the new mission, notwithstanding that they need them.

Do we have helicopters available?

[Leonard Edwards]

Do we have helicopters available? No, we do not. That's why we have to lease them.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Okay. My understanding was we did, but that's defence, and I know that's another issue.

So presently we are not supplying helicopters or financing for the mission—

[Leonard Edwards]

For the new mission.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

That's correct.