Foreign Affairs Committee on Oct. 8th, 2009

[Gordon Peeling]

Just go to subclause 4(6). It says “eight months”.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Yes, there's a time limit.

[Gordon Peeling]

You're going to have a timeline when you have to complete an investigation.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Of course. You don't think there's enough time for a response in that timeline?

[Gordon Peeling]

It's an either/or: you're either in compliance or you're not in compliance.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

But you would agree, you have to have some time, right? Can we talk about what a reasonable timeline is?

[Gordon Peeling]

Well, ideally, but you--

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

That's an amendment.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much.

Unfortunately, our time is up here.

Thank you very much, Mr. Peeling, for your testimony today. You certainly answered many of the questions; there are others that we look forward to hearing other opinions on.

We will move now to committee business.

First of all, when we passed our steering committee report, part of that report asked that the committee pass a motion for an extension of 30 sitting days to consider Bill C-300.

I would welcome a motion on that.

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We will have our clerk draft up the report. We will deliver that as soon as possible so that they know.

The second item is our steering committee report. When we come back from our break of next week, we have allocated two days, October 20 and 22, to the treatment of Canadians abroad.

Now, that's wonderful--except no one has put forward any witnesses.

If you remember, we wanted to stick with themes, certain kinds of themes, so please get those in. Usually we have time to peruse the witness list, but unfortunately you aren't giving the clerk or the committee much time to do that.

Mr. Obhrai.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Talking about themes, there is a motion from me in reference to Canadians abroad and child custody. That is a theme we want to study.

So there is a motion there already.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Okay. We can take that into account.

Again, we could probably start with the departments. That gives some indication to our clerk of whom to call.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

We could certainly hear from the departments.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Yes. We'll definitely have them up first, because they're the easiest to get a hold of.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

We need to hear from the consular division, we need to hear from the ADMs--we need to hear from the government.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Okay.

That gives us some indication, but I'm here mainly to prompt you in the submission of names.

Mr. Dewar, on that point.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I had provided a name before, but it was lost in the mix. I'll make sure I get that to you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Please, and thank you.

Mr. Dewar has one more very quick thing to mention.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Yes, it's very quick.

This is a follow-up on the meeting we had with the folks who were working on the border of Burma and Thailand. I was hoping to have it today, but because of the calendar--

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

It can go into committee business.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I know, yes.

I was hoping to have a motion for this committee to consider unanimous support for the program. The funding is going to end March 31, 2010. Basically, it's just putting a motion forward to say that this committee supports the extension of the funding for the cross-border programs, which we heard witnesses from.

Actually, it's just to notify; I just wanted...if we could deal with that when we come back.

[An hon. member]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Yes.

So that motion has come in and it's getting translated.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Okay. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Madam Deschamps.