Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 23rd, 2009

[Elaine Feldman]

One thing I should say is that while the percentage is lower than it was a few years ago, the dollar value of the trade is higher, so that's one thing to keep in mind. The other, of course, is that our percentage share goes down as other countries increase their exports to the United States. For example, China has taken a larger share of the U.S. market.

But of course Canada does have the global commerce strategy, which is designed not only to increase our trade with the United States but to increase our trade with a range of key partners around the world, including, as Mr. Dewar referred to, the BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India, and China.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

Is there anything specific you can mention that would dramatically help with a freer flow of material across the board in the future? Specifically, are there any specifics on some of the congestion at the border?

[Elaine Feldman]

There's a lot of work going on at the officials' level. We work very closely, and when I say “we”, I mean the whole of government approach, Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Transport, CBSA, Public Safety, with counterparts in the United States to ensure that flows across the border are as efficient as possible. Whether there's anything dramatic coming, I can't answer.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

The other question I had was, is this both ways that the restrictions are approximately even or is there any difference between our importing of material as opposed to their importing of material?

[Elaine Feldman]

We each have our own regulations....

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

Is there anything out there that would be different, or is it different?

[Elaine Feldman]

I'm looking at my colleague who has more expertise in these sorts of matters, but nothing stands out in particular.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

So the difficulty is fairly even on both sides?

[Elaine Feldman]

I think the answer is we each have our own regulatory systems, which are sometimes coordinated and sometimes not.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you very much, Mr. Goldring.

I think that's probably where we will leave it for today. We want to thank you very much for coming in. I think everyone with great expectation watched the President of the United States come here last week. Again, it seems like a renewed enthusiasm for recognizing the leadership of that country here, and it's good that we've been able to have this discussion to help us understand a little bit more about the challenges that go together with having a trading partner so close and an ally and all those things that go along with it.

Thank you to the department for being here and helping us to understand the study a little better.

We're going to suspend for about a minute, and then we're going to come back to committee business, where we have a budget and some other work to quickly look at.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We'll call this meeting back to order and we'll go into our committee business portion. I don't think we have any defined agenda. We do have one printed, but I know we have a couple of things we want to let you know about.

First of all, you have in front of you a budget and it is the study budget. This budget allows for witnesses to be brought. We have some coming from different parts of the country, so this is fairly routine. We would just ask the committee for comment or if somebody would move this budget.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

It's too expensive, but if Paul Dewar approves the stimulus package, we'll let it go.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All right, so do we have a motion then to accept this budget as presented by the clerk? All in favour?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

There are a couple of other things I would like to tell you about. First of all, did everyone get a copy of the agenda for who's going to be coming in the next little while? Wednesday, again, we continue on this study, and we have Dr. André Plourde and Thomas D'Aquino, David Stewart-Patterson, Sam Boutzouvis, and also Colin Robertson. Then next Monday we have Peter Harder and James Taylor, and we'll just keep going down, and then Perrin Beatty and a number of others.

Are they circulating this? All right. So you'll have received that now.

I also want to mention--and maybe Mr. Dewar wants to introduce it--that the supplementary estimates (C) are....

Paul.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

It's very simple. We've just received supplementary estimates that have the letter “C” on them—for those who hadn't seen the previous ones when we had talked to the minister. I just want to ensure that we will have an opportunity to have the minister here to talk about the estimates.

This came out just before we left for the break week. I'm not sure if the clerk knows this, but were the main estimates tabled today?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

No. I think it will be either today or tomorrow, but very soon.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Regardless—and maybe we could do two together, because there's a lot in this—I don't know if people had a chance to look through it and then the main estimates, but I would like at some point very soon, because it's part of our job, to have ministers representing—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

What I can say is, because the main estimates are going to be tabled here in the next little while, personally—and again, this is just an opinion—we've always had ministers who have been willing to appear, and I'm sure they would be willing to appear on the main estimates. They're coming down, and any question in the supplementary estimates can be brought forward on the main estimates. I don't know if it's necessary that we have a minister for the supplementary estimates and then a week later make another request for the main estimates.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

My intent is to be reasonable on this. That's why, when I initially got these, I thought we should be doing our job as a committee and, understanding that the main estimates are coming, put them together. So I just want to make sure we've put that on our agenda, to invite the minister for, I would suggest, both, and to do it as soon as possible. I thought the main estimates were coming out today when I heard at lunch that they might be.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

They're coming very soon, and we have until May, I think, to have a minister appear for them. Again, those supplementary estimates can be brought up as well when the minister is here on the main estimates.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I don't think this is controversial, just to have the minister invited to the committee to go over the estimates in a timely fashion.

One other point I would like to bring up is, where are we at with the subcommittee on human rights? I would like personally to get that going as soon as possible.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

They are meeting. In fact, in the House today, just from what I overhead, Mr. Marston, Mr. Reid, and a couple of others from the other party were getting together to discuss the next little bit.

So we have not necessarily a motion, but I think Mr. Dewar is saying that when these main estimates come out, we can expect a minister to come and—

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I'm saying to invite the “ministers”.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

To invite the ministers.

Mr. Obhrai.