Evidence of meeting #52 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was agreements.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
Vice-Chair, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
That's the agreement on internal trade.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
Internal trade, right. But as I understand it, the federal government chose to use the CITT to handle AIT procurement disputes. Is that correct or not?
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
Can you tell me why that was done? Why not handle the disputes under the AIT process? What was the advantage of going to the CITT process?
5:05 p.m.
Vice-Chair, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
Again, I cannot speak for government policy, but the CITT has been involved in procurement review for over 18 years, so we were a body that was already in existence with experience.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
So there are two processes that are set up, and some go through the AIT and some go through the CITT. I'm just wondering why there are two.
5:05 p.m.
Director of Procurement Review, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
When you say the AIT, I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
As I understand it, there's an AIT procurement disputes settlement process. Is that correct? Is there no other process?
5:05 p.m.
Director of Procurement Review, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
There's a separate one for the province and then there's the federal one as well.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
Okay. I'm just wondering why there are two bodies to deal with dispute settlement issues.
5:05 p.m.
Vice-Chair, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
As I said, I think the focus for procurement disputes for the federal government is the CITT, whether it's under the AIT or the international trade agreements. Then the AIT may have other provisions relating to violations of the other non-procurement provisions of the AIT.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
So the vast majority of complaints that the CITT handles are domestic complaints, or Canadian supplier complaints.
5:05 p.m.
Vice-Chair, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
That's right, and they may be under any of the three agreements.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
In your job you can't deal with policy, but if the government decided that it wanted to use trade policy for a political goal--and I'm thinking of the Conservative government under Mr. Mulroney, which implemented a boycott policy with South Africa to protest the apartheid regime--would that be permissible under the current trade agreements, or could that be subject to a trade complaint that would come before your body?
5:10 p.m.
Vice-Chair, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
In terms of procurement, a South African supplier would not be able to lodge a complaint with the tribunal because South Africa is not a member of the multilateral agreement on government procurement.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
If there were a country that was a signatory to that agreement and that had practices Canada disagreed with, such as human rights violations, slave labour, child labour, or something like that, would Canada be able to implement a boycott policy?
5:10 p.m.
Vice-Chair, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
I think we're getting outside the realm of procurement.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
If that country then raised a complaint before your organization, would that be an acceptable complaint?
5:10 p.m.
Vice-Chair, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
The grounds of complaint are limited to the specific provisions that are found within the CITT Act, which then take you back to the international agreements.
I know this sounds circuitous, but--
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
I guess our boycotts based on human rights or other violations are subject to or overridden by trade agreements.
5:10 p.m.
Vice-Chair, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
I'm not saying that, because I'm not commenting on boycotts. I can only talk to you about the procurement responsibilities of the tribunal.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
So if Canada decided it was not going to award any contracts to a country based on human rights concerns and that country was a signatory to international trade agreements and that country filed a complaint to the CITT, that's something you would review but you could rule against that complaint.
5:10 p.m.
Vice-Chair, Canadian International Trade Tribunal
It has to be a specific procurement that comes to the tribunal for review. You don't come to the tribunal with complaints about policies, or--
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
No, I understand, but if there's a country that tried to apply--
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Daryl Kramp
Ms. Nash, you're over your time now. Are you comfortable with the response on that?