Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on March 19th, 2013

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I know I have very little time, so I'd like to follow up on the reference from Mr. Cotler about some of the recent killings. Antonio Trejo Cabrera was a lawyer who was killed in September 2012. His brother was killed last month. Antonio was amongst those opposing congress's creation of special development regions, informally known as charter cities. Opposing them is unconstitutional, bringing a case before the court.

Now, bracketing their legality—I'm not going to ask you about that—and given that charter cities or special development regions, as they're called, are presented as important for economic development, what position has Canada—or CIDA in particular—taken or does it now take on the initiatives of special development regions as a policy matter? Has Canada to this point done anything to facilitate the creation of those entities, either in terms of Canadian or non-Canadian actors who would like to be part of special development regions?

[Lise Filiatrault]

What I can say is that as a program in Honduras we are certainly aware of the question of model cities and of the interest for this question in Honduras. But our CIDA program is not involved in this, really, and we don't really have any linkages with that. We are looking at the information and we've been following this, but we don't really have any link with the model cities.

As I explained the nature of our program and the nature of our activities, there is no direct link or involvement between CIDA and the model cities.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

I have one quick last follow-up then.

Given no current involvement, has CIDA been thinking through the whole question of model cities? And if there comes a point when Canadian companies want to be involved in their creation or participate in them, is CIDA prepared to support that kind of involvement if it falls within other guidelines for development and corporate cooperation that the government is currently exploring a little bit?

[Lise Filiatrault]

That's a little bit of a hypothetical question and a question for the future, so it is hard to answer.

There is a dimension in the model cities about attracting investment and generating opportunities. I believe this committee also asked questions of our colleagues in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and once again there is a link to investment or companies, so there might be more on their side that I really cannot comment on.

In terms of our programming typically, we establish our priorities for each country we work in. We have country strategies and we implement them, and we regularly assess our priorities based on the context and the country and based on what other donors are doing. We do that on a regular basis. When we do that in the case of Honduras and we analyze it, at that point we look at the context and the country, including the context of the model cities, and we'll factor that into our analysis for future programming recommendations.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

We're going to have to end now, but I just have a very quick question to follow up on the last one.

You mentioned that you would add this into your analysis. What would then happen with that analysis? Does it guide your decisions directly, or do you then have to take it back to the minister and get the minister's approval and go through a process that involves going up to the ministerial level?

I ask this because obviously Professor Scott asks these questions, as we all do, with an eye to future Canadian policy, and we want to make sure we know what the pathways are that will allow whatever policy preferences this committee thinks are appropriate to be implemented into government policy.

Do you know the answer to the question I just asked?

[Lise Filiatrault]

I'm sorry, the sound is not very good, so I'm not sure I understood your question correctly. You are asking me if our analysis of the context...?

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Yes. You mentioned you do analysis and you put it in future reports. My question is, what happens to those reports? Are they simply for ministerial advice, or do they become public, or do you act on them without having to go to the minister?

[Lise Filiatrault]

I was referring more to the analysis we do for ministerial advice.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you to our witnesses, both of you, for being patient at the front end of this meeting and for providing such useful testimony throughout.

Colleagues, I don't think there's any other business we need to discuss of an administrative nature. Thank you for your patience and for seeing the clock with the same flexible eye that I did.

We are adjourned.