Evidence of meeting #26 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was report.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ali Ehsassi
Mr. Bergeron, thank you very much for that.
I had the opportunity to look at the log of notices that we've previously received. It appears to me that the wording you would like to have adopted for your motion is not very similar to the previous motion you tabled. Would you like to propose some wording for this motion that you're moving today?
5:50 p.m.
Bloc
Stéphane Bergeron Bloc Montarville, QC
Could you provide me with the motion we had last time on Haiti?
5:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ali Ehsassi
Yes. I can read it to you:
That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee undertake a study on the situation in Haiti; that the committee invite the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of International Development and officials to follow up on this issue and that, to this end, the committee hold a minimum of two meetings; and that the committee report its findings and recommendations to the House.
5:50 p.m.
Bloc
Stéphane Bergeron Bloc Montarville, QC
Mr. Chair, I'm not even sure I need to propose another motion since, unless I'm mistaken, I don't think we have had two meetings on Haiti, for one thing, and I don't think we have produced any report at all following that study. I feel that this motion is still as relevant today, so there is no need for a new motion, and we can put this motion forward.
The same goes for the motion on the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations. It has been duly adopted, and we are just waiting for it to be implemented, Mr. Chair.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
Mr. Chair, if I may, I would like to comment on Mr. Bergeron's comment.
It is very important to come back to the situation in Haiti. Mr. Bergeron knows that I care about this. Even though this motion was already on the table, it seems to me that we have already had at least one meeting to discuss the situation in Haiti. That said, the meeting was months ago, and the situation has deteriorated a great deal since then. So I would suggest that we keep to two meetings in the motion, that we consider that the briefing that we had was in another setting, and that we keep the possibility of having two meetings on the current situation in Haiti. We could even invite the Canadian ambassador to Haiti, if possible.
This brings me to talk a little bit about our ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae. We heard from him in February, but that was in the context of our study on Ukraine, so we are more than willing to have him back to the committee to discuss broader issues.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ali Ehsassi
It's a point well taken. For the benefit of the members, the first meeting we had on Haiti occurred on February 7. As it has been pointed out, the situation has been very fluid.
With respect to the second issue that was raised by Mr. Bergeron, yes, your motion to bring our ambassador to the UN was adopted as well. That was for two hours. Is that correct? It was for one session of two hours.
I apologize if I confused anyone by saying I couldn't find that particular motion. Yes, it is very much part of record.
Thank you, Mr. Bergeron.
Did anyone want to speak?
5:55 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Mr. Chair, I was going to suggest on this particular point that one way committees have proceeded sometimes is with the chair coming forward with a prospective calendar for, say, the fall. We have Ukraine, Armenia, Pakistan, Haiti and the UN ambassador. Why doesn't the analyst, with you—
6 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
—take that back and prepare a prospective calendar? If there's anything controversial in it, we might have to discuss it more, but hopefully, we can have a draft that's reflective of the consensus of where the committee wants to go on these issues. We can go from there.
6 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ali Ehsassi
Absolutely. That's very sensible. I think we could have that prepared by next Monday.
Thank you.
Go ahead, Mr. Morantz.
6 p.m.
Conservative
Marty Morantz Conservative Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
I also wanted to mention we have two bills that were referred to the committee that we need to review and report back to the House on.
6 p.m.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
Mr. Chair, along the same lines as Mr. Morantz, we also have to complete the studies we began in the last session. I believe Ms. McPherson referred to the vaccine equity study. We would like to make sure we issue reports for the matters we've covered in the committee.
6 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ali Ehsassi
I think it would be fair to say that the testimony we heard on that particular study is somewhat dated. It's been approximately—if memory serves—six months since we last heard from any witness. As you know, there were some developments subsequent to the study we undertook.
I understand that a draft report is ready, but is it really the wish of the members that we release the report and we review it? How do you intend to proceed with that, given it is dated information?
Go ahead, Ms. McPherson.
6 p.m.
NDP
Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
Mr. Chair, I think it's vital we have that report completed. If it's necessary to do a meeting where we follow up on some of that, that's fine. However, I think one of the things we are working with here is the potential for future pandemics and instructing the government on how to respond in the event of future pandemics.
To say the work is dated and is no longer useful is not very helpful. I think it's very important that we have that report brought forward.
Thank you.
6 p.m.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
I also think it's impossible for the members to make a decision on this without actually seeing the draft report.
6 p.m.
A voice
I think it was distributed.
6 p.m.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
I apologize, Analyst. Thank you.
As a correction, it's been less than five months, I believe, since our last meeting on the vaccine equity.
6 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ali Ehsassi
I apologize. I misspoke. It hasn't been six months. It's been five months.
Go ahead, Mr. Genuis.
6 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
I agree. It's an important issue. The context has changed considerably.
It's not about saying it's not important, but I wonder if asking the analysts to send us a revised draft report that reflects some of the new context would be a good way to proceed. Members could consider that. I think that some of the tenses will have to be a bit different, as well, to reflect that this was the reality, but it may not be the reality. It may be something to think about for a future reality and so forth.
6 p.m.
Billy Joe Siekierski Committee Researcher
I would add that this summer, after the WTO ministerial decision, I wrote a paper on the particular elements in case the committee wanted to see it. It might reflect their opinions on the report. That could be distributed at any moment. There's at least that component to bring everybody up to speed and know what the reactions were.
6 p.m.
Liberal
6 p.m.
Committee Researcher
If that's the will, I guess it could be, but I don't know if the consensus is to update the report. Because it was circulated, I'm not sure if....
6 p.m.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
As I recall, the report was drafted, circulated and not at any point discussed at committee. It would make sense to invite our analysts to prepare and distribute a revised report that reflects the context and their research. If there's information you have that you can distribute in advance, that's great, but I think it would be most useful to embed it into the report, and then the committee can give that revised report consideration at the appropriate time.