Foreign Affairs Committee on April 30th, 2013

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

Lots of people tell me that the NDP wants to bring in a carbon tax.

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

I think I have a really reliable source, but I want to move on to the next question, if you'll permit me.

Minister, you said that Canada doesn't mind saying “the difficult things”. One of the problems is that Canada also should do the hard diplomatic work.

In this respect, I have to say that I'm very sad, both for substantive reasons and for symbolic reasons, that the Glyn Berry program, which was named in honour of a foreign service officer who died in the service of this country and who was our last significant instrument for the promotion of human rights, has been cancelled.

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

I'm very pleased to correct the record. The GPSF had a five-year mandate. Earlier, I told your colleague, Mr. Dewar, that we would be coming in short order with a substitute program.

The Glyn Berry program has done some good work and we'd like to see work in that area continue. We can do no greater commemoration to the sacrifice he made than by continuing that work. I hope to come forward in short order with information, which I know you'll be very excited about. I'd be very pleased to offer you a personal briefing from the minister on our new initiative.

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

I will be—

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

That's all the time we have.

We're going to move over to Mr. Williamson for five minutes, please.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you, Ministers. It's good to see both of you here.

Minister Baird, I understand that when you were attending the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group in London, you met with your counterpart from Bangladesh. Given the tragedy in that country, which I think has shocked and saddened an awful lot of Canadians, I'm curious to know if you could elaborate on the conversation you had with the Bangladeshi minister, and if there was any message you delivered to the minister on behalf of all Canadians who have read this news, have seen these photos, and are wondering just what's going on.

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

I certainly met with her, Dr. Dipu Moni, who is the foreign affairs minister of Bangladesh, and I relayed our strong sympathies to the government and to the people of Bangladesh.

I also relayed that in Canada we have done a lot of good work. We have learned from a lot of mistakes over the course of our development. I offered her the support of the Government of Canada on issues like the building code and on ways in which Canada could provide support bilaterally to her government in this regard. I also was able to relay to her the offers of support from the business community in Canada. I've been incredibly impressed with the public comments that Loblaws has made and their offer and desire to engage with the government there.

If you get the government and the private sector, who are willing to offer tangible support to help improve the safety and security of people in the developing world, particularly where they have this challenge.... We've made that offer. Obviously, I think, most people are still in shock. They only just yesterday stopped the emergency effort. I think that when the dust settles, both figuratively and literally, we look forward to engaging with Bangladesh in this regard.

I don't think it's a matter of saying, “Look, in Canada we know how to do everything.” But we can impart our experience and our knowledge, whether it's provincial, municipal, or federal experience in the building code, and best practices by the Canadian construction industry, which has been very good. We have had some notable problems in our history, and I think we've learned and are stronger because of that.

I think we're all deeply concerned by the fact that many of the victims of this tragedy were vulnerable women desperately trying to provide for themselves and their families. That's just another reason for us to want to provide support. I think this would be something that all members would share.

I'll report back to you if they concur to take us up on our offer, but I did appreciate, and the government appreciated, the statements of a number of retailers, and particularly Loblaws' engagement in this regard.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

I have just a quick question for the both of you. There are reports coming out about the U.S. budget that Homeland Security is looking at putting in place a border-crossing tax for all vehicles and trains, and that visitors entering the country by foot could pay a fee. I'm just curious to get your thoughts on Canada's position regarding this border-crossing tax, which is, again, a part of the U.S. budget coming from Homeland Security and from the Obama administration.

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

We are obviously tremendously concerned by this part of the draft of President Obama's 2014 budget, where he wants to do a study. The request is actually for a funding request to do the study.

Obviously we're tremendously engaged with the administration, but particularly with the U.S. Congress. I think one of the things that has happened is that Frank McKenna started to try to move—then Michael Wilson and now Gary Doer—to have a greater engagement, both politically and through the diplomatic service in Washington, with the U.S. Congress.

There are many members of the U.S. Congress who have already spoken up loudly. We're very engaged with them through our mission in Washington. Senator Chuck Schumer, for example, has spoken out very strongly. There are many powerful allies that Canada has in Congress.

Rob Merrifield, the former president of the Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group, has been really effective at helping support me, Diane, the embassy, and the government on the ground. He has a lot of great contacts on Capitol Hill, and that has been a real benefit. There is the great work that the diplomatic service does, and having an elected official can make a big difference. Gord Brown and the Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group do a lot of good work. Gord has accompanied me on a visit to Washington in the past. We hope to get this issue defeated.

This is, though, the reality. It is what happens when a country's finances get out of control. Cyprus starts to look at confiscating people's bank accounts. You are desperately trying to find more fees that will actually hurt economic growth, hurt job creation. We're doing everything we can to lessen the restrictions on the border and to make it easier for legitimate trade and travel because that yields more growth and more opportunity.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thanks, John. That's all the time we have.

We're going to finish up with Ms. Grewal.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to both of the ministers for their time and their presentations.

My question goes to Minister Ablonczy. Minister, I know first-hand that international child abduction cases are very complex and very stressful for the parent who is left behind. I have a constituent who is going through a very difficult time. There may be some other MPs around this table who have been asked to assist in similar cases.

Would you please advise this committee of the efforts that our government is taking, not only to prevent international child abductions but to improve the international child custody disputes in complex countries? How can we as members of Parliament try to assist the left-behind parents in our communities? Could you say something about that?

[Diane Ablonczy, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

This is a very important issue, and as you mentioned, these cases are very complex. There is never an easy resolution, sadly. We do expect these kinds of child abduction cases to increase as people travel more or have more than one citizenship.

The first thing I guess you can tell your constituents—because this is a misconception—is that the Government of Canada cannot re-abduct a child. We can't go into another country and simply seize the child and bring the child back to Canada. You'd be surprised how many people aren't quite clear about that.

We also have some measures that parents can take to prevent child abductions. For example, they can put their child on a passport security list. They can have a notarized consent to travel, as Lois mentioned. They can contact our embassy, if they think a child will be abducted to another country, to just give them a heads-up about their fears and concerns. Of course we also have consular officials here in Ottawa who can be helpful too.

We launched a manual for left-behind parents in July of this year. It can be found online at travel.gc.ca—another good reason to go to the website. It's really a step-by-step guide. Organizations on the ground, such as Enfant-Retour, have endorsed this manual and find it very helpful.

A lot of work, of course, is done through channels, with partners of the federal government—the RCMP, provincial central authorities, and of course organizations like Enfant-Retour and Missing Children Canada. We're always reaching out to our provincial partners to have better coordination, and good coordination.

We've also reached out to MPs through parliamentary briefings. They're not as well attended as I'd like to see. We really encourage MPs to come and hear this information first-hand instead of sending a staff member, although I know our staff help us a lot.

We are also working to beef up the Hague Convention, because at this point it's not enforceable, so it sometimes has loopholes in it that we wouldn't like to see.

We're also leading the charge on what we call the Malta process. It involves countries where due to cultural traditions there's a strong paternalistic say-so in the disposition of a child. We're trying to find a way to put a protocol in place that would bring more fairness and more resolution to cases involving those countries.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you. That's all the time we have.

Ministers, thank you very much for taking the time.

To Deputy Minister Rosenberg, and to Assistant Deputy Ministers Patel and Crosbie, thank you very much as well. We really appreciate it.

The meeting is adjourned.