Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 4th, 2012

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

Thank you, minister.

No doubt, you are familiar with the Paris Principles.

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

No, I'm not....

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

You don't?

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

No.

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

Oh. If you don't know about the Paris principles, I think my question is therefore irrelevant.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Minister, we're going to get you to wrap up, and then we will vote on the supplementaries.

[Julian Fantino, Conservative, Vaughan, ON]

Mr. Chair and members, thank you for the opportunity and for having me here today with our officials.

I will also take this opportunity to congratulate you on your recent report, Driving Inclusive Economic Growth: The Role of the Private Sector in International Development. We are reviewing the report, and we will be tabling the response in due course. I want you to know how important and valuable that particular report is to us, and we'll deal with it.

Allow me to make one observation. The opposition found enough time in their dissenting opinion with respect to the report to complain about having no CIDA officials present for the study, yet they did not find enough time to invite any one of us to appear.

I'm honoured that the Prime Minister asked me to be Minister of International Cooperation. Canadians have shown themselves time and again to have a sense of compassion for their neighbours, whether that is here in Canada or around the world, when people are suffering most. CIDA is an expression of the best Canadian values.

Mr. Chair, humanitarian and developmental work at CIDA is critical to the lives of so many people around the world, and I'm proud to work alongside the many committed CIDA personnel who work diligently around the world in very difficult circumstances. I praise their efforts.

Canada has a lot to be proud of, and Canadians' generosity has been demonstrated time and time again through our matching funds, the kinds of results that we've been achieving, the lives we are saving, and the quality of life we're improving for so many people around the world. That is a sense...to be proud of achievements, realizing full well that we have challenges to continue. But all said, Canada ranks very, very high with the receiver countries, and the communities and leaders in these countries, and the NGOs, for the work we're doing, obviously in partnership with many of them around the world.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thanks very much to you, Minister, and to the officials, for taking the time to be here this morning.

We're going to suspend for a couple of minutes as the witnesses leave. We're going to come back and look at the supplementaries, and then we'll go in camera to deal with committee business.

Minister, thank you very much.

[Proceedings continue in camera]

[Public proceedings resume]

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

We will have all the members back to the table. We're going to continue on with the meeting. I just want to know what the members want to do in terms of the supplementary estimates. We do have a number of them there. We have a choice: we can vote on them individually; we can vote on them as a group; or not vote on them at all, and they would be deemed reported back. I'm going to defer to what the committee wants to do.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Let's work. I want to go on the record.

[An hon. member]

Let's vote as a group.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Dealing with the supplementary estimates (B) 2012-13: Votes 1b, 5b, 10b, 15b, 30b, L35b, L40b, and 45b under Foreign Affairs and International Trade, shall they be carried?

FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Department

Vote 1b—Operating expenditures..........$1

Vote 5b—Capital expenditures..........$1

Vote 10b—The grants listed in the Estimates and contributions..........$1

Vote 15b—Payments, in respect of pension, insurance and social..........$1

Canadian International Development Agency

Vote 30b—The grants listed in the Estimates and contributions..........$1

Vote L35b—Canadian International Development Agency..........$1

Vote L40b—Canadian International Development Agency..........$1

International Development Research Centre

Vote 45b—Payments to the International Development Research Centre..........$1

(Votes 1b, 5b, 10b, 15b, 30b, L35b, L40b, and 45b agreed to)

Thank you very much. Shall I report the supplementary estimates (B) 2012-13 to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

What we're going to do now is just take one minute to go in camera and then we're going to discuss some committee business.

[Proceedings continue in camera]