Evidence of meeting #6 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 41st Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site.) The winning word was munitions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director General, Non-Proliferation and Security Threat Reduction Bureau, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
I'm advised that the reporting is updates on stockpile destruction, but not on advocacy activities.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
Okay.
Mr. Chair, may I come back to.... Since it really talks only about stockpiles, what I'm trying to propose here is that we provide some indication of what energy we've put into this commitment that we will try to help to rid the world of cluster bombs. My amendment is proposing that. I'm certainly open to modification of it, but I would certainly like its intent to be adopted.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Okay.
Is there any other discussion on Mr. Garneau's proposed amendment?
Go ahead, Ms. Nolke. Then we have Mr. Dewar.
Director General, Non-Proliferation and Security Threat Reduction Bureau, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
If I may just add this, I've also just been advised that one of the elements that goes into our annual voluntary—at this point—reporting is activities that we've carried out for clearance purposes, for example. So the types of projects that the minister indicated we might be carrying out in the future, once we are parties to the convention, would be items that we would also be reporting on. Those, of course, do include advocacy activities such as funding NGOs, for example, that are active in seeking universalization of the treaty.
Conservative
Mike Allen Conservative Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
My comment on this is that I am concerned about putting in the statute a reporting relationship like this, especially on advocacy efforts. Since the committee is master of its own destiny, I would think that it would be better for us to maybe once a year call the minister to committee to report on those efforts, as opposed to doing it in the statute.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
I'm certainly very amenable to that kind of suggestion. Is this something that could be put in as one clause in the bill: that the minister will be called to the committee to report on advocacy efforts? Is that something that's within the scope of this bill as an amendment?
Conservative
Deepak Obhrai Conservative Calgary East, AB
What do you think I raised my hand for? I didn't say hi.
Conservative
Deepak Obhrai Conservative Calgary East, AB
I think we need a little more time to come back on that amendment. If you are agreeable, when we have the session on discussing clause 11, we can then discuss what you have just said and what Hélène has just said, and see if that can be matched somehow. All right?
Is that agreeable?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
My suggestion was going to be that we vote on this particular one, or that you withdraw it, and then you present us a new one and then we'll look at clause 11. Do you want to vote on this, or do you want to withdraw this particular amendment?
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
I will withdraw the amendment with the understanding that it will come up again.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Absolutely. Do we have unanimous consent for Mr. Garneau to withdraw the amendment?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
(Amendment withdrawn)
All right, thank you very much. We'll remove that for now.
We have two more clauses to look at today and then we need to talk about what the schedule could look like for looking at clause 11.
I am going to call the question with regard to clauses 23 and 24. Is there any discussion, or any concern?
(Clauses 23 and 24 inclusive agreed to)
We have some stood clauses. Obviously two were dependent on the withdrawal of amendment LIB-3, so that is it for now. That is as far as we can go today on this particular piece of legislation. We'll come back with either a new clause 22.1 by the Liberals...as well as looking at clause 11.
What does this look like in terms of a timeline? How do we want to proceed?
Conservative
Deepak Obhrai Conservative Calgary East, AB
We are happy if we do it sometime next week, if your calendar allows it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
We have officials on Syria coming in for an hour on Thursday. We could possibly look at an hour on Thursday. We also have the Office of Religious Freedom coming in for an hour on December 10, next Tuesday, so there is another possible hour there.
Do we want to look at one hour on Thursday and one hour on Tuesday?
