Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 1st, 2011

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

We will do so.

Do I have additional time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Yes.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I want to thank you again, Mr. Minister.

I think the department will have to go through quite serious cuts to its budget. It's always difficult to cut the budget in the Department of Foreign Affairs, because there is so little program money; it's mainly people and operations.

How do you foresee these cuts? Will they further the imbalance between the number of people in Ottawa and the number of people abroad?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

For any change we make in this regard, we would want to be fair and balanced. The single biggest resource of the department is our people, our expertise. We have a lot of hardworking, brilliant people, and they do their best when they are working abroad representing Canada, Canadian values, and Canadian interests. I'm confident that in the expenditure reduction exercise we will continue to fulfill our mandate. No final decisions have been made, so I can't speak to specifics.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

Ms. Grewal, do you want to take a couple of minutes? We're going to wrap up with you.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for coming to our meeting.

Being on the subcommittee on human rights, I would like to ask a question on this subject. During the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Perth, Australia, much attention was paid to the issue of human rights, including Sri Lanka's future hosting of the meeting. What message did Canada convey while there? What is its position coming out of the Commonwealth meeting?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We used our loudest voice, raising our serious concerns about three issues: lack of accountability, lack of reconciliation, and a growing authoritarian trend. In my discussions with my colleagues, we talked about how we could leverage Sri Lanka's hosting the Commonwealth in two years to try to encourage progress in those three areas.

Canada also spoke strongly on the issue of human rights for gays and lesbians. It still is a significant concern that in 41 of the Commonwealth countries there is criminalization of homosexuality. We find that deeply concerning, and we'll continue to speak on that and on gender equality, religious freedom, and violence against women. Sometimes it can be rather uncomfortable to raise some of these issues. Some people would rather we didn't, but we have an important responsibility to do so.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Do I have more time?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Sure.

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

I'll pass my time to Mr. Goldring.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

Minister, when I was attending the Arctic Council meeting in Russia, we looked at some geological formations in a museum. We all understand the deep criticism of Canada's oil sands, yet we do not hear much about the oil sands development in other parts of the world, so the noise from some of our misguided environmentalists and politicians comes through very loud and masks the reality around the world.

The reality is that there are oil sands deposits all over the world—in Russia and Ukraine, I understand. We know all too well that the pipeline that comes from Russia through Ukraine delivers much of Europe's oil. My understanding is that the oil sands have not yet been developed as they have in Alberta, but it is almost certain that they will be

The European Parliament has been negative about Alberta oil sands. I think it would be good to remind them—and you mentioned you were attending an OSCE function—that they will soon be receiving oil sands oil down that same pipeline. At that point, they will have to choose whether to park their cars or take the oil sands oil.

Would it be good to put a balance into the conversation, to remind our European friends that many countries around the world have oil sands, and that they will be mined and developed under controlled environmental conditions, so that the topic of conversation isn't all negativity toward Alberta's oil sands?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I agree with you. It's a good point.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

Minister, thank you for taking the time to be here this morning.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Could I make some closing remarks?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Most definitely.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I have just a few points. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. One of the things I'm committed to is to have a more open policy development process. If people have ideas, suggestions, I'd like to hear them. I think much of foreign policy should not be partisan and should not be political. Of course there will be some issues that are, and it's fair that there will be honest differences of opinion.

One of the things that worked very well with the Canadian mission in Libya was that we were forthcoming about offering briefings, not just to members of this committee but to the party leaders and others. I want to underline to all members of the committee that our team of officials is always available to provide support for your work and deliberations.

There are a significant number of emerging issues. It's an active time in the world, and I, my office, and my department will be available on short notice to support the critics, committee members, and others whenever the need arises.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Go ahead.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Thank you, Chair.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

You let Hélène ask all the questions.

[Hélène Laverdière, NDP, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

I would really like to thank the minister for his openness and availability. We've already availed ourselves of some briefing and discussions, and we are quite intent on continuing that way too.

Thank you very much.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I'll say to our colleague from the NDP that this is the tenth department I've led and this is the tenth time I haven't got a single question on the supplementary estimates or the estimates.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

After ten years of being on a foreign affairs committee, this is the first committee I've seen where the opposition has been so quiet, which means you've done an excellent job.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay.

We will vote on the supplementaries on Tuesday, just to let you know.

Thank you very much again, and to the ADMs and DMs.

The meeting is adjourned.