International Trade Committee on Oct. 26th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Okay. Was there something to be added to that?

[Cindy Negus]

It's a standard provision. Again, we will provide you with that table, but that is the purpose of it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

That will be very helpful. It needs to be in both official languages.

All right, thank you all very much for coming again. We do appreciate it very much.

I'll just have you leave the table; we have a subcommittee report to deal with here, so we'll start, but thank you again, very much, to all the witnesses from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and from the Canada Revenue Agency.

Now we will deal with the subcommittee report.

You will all have received copies of the report from the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Standing Committee on International Trade, I believe? Most people have. Mr. Julian, we'll get one to you right away.

The subcommittee met yesterday and discussed the issues that you see in the report. The first item is on the amendments to Bill C-24. The subcommittee agreed that this Friday--tomorrow--was the deadline for submitting amendments. As there are witnesses coming on Tuesday, the committee agreed to extend the deadline for amendments, especially amendments that might arise from Tuesday's meeting. In fact, we expect that most of the amendments will be in by Friday so that the clerks can deal with them, but there may be a few allowed. That was the intent of that part of the report, so let's deal with that first.

There are two things to understand: first, this committee is of course a public meeting; second, the full committee has to approve the subcommittee report, so that's why we have it here and that's why we're dealing with it.

Go ahead, Ms. Guergis.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

The majority of the committee has to approve; that's how it always seems to work here, but it's not always everyone agreeing, right?

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

That's right. It's for a majority to approve.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Letters have been sent out, though, telling everyone that Friday was the deadline. So I'm a little concerned about why we're extending it. I realize that I'll probably lose that around the table, but I do want to point out, too, that we made a decision, that we had set a deadline, letters were sent out, and now, all of a sudden, we've decided to extend it. I have some great concern about that and I'm not exactly sure as to why we're doing it. I don't agree with the reasons that were provided.

Perhaps Mr. Julian would like to give me some more insight as to why we have that on the table.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Julian, would you like to explain why that's been extended, the reasoning behind it?

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

We have witnesses on Tuesday, Mr. Chair, and for us to say we set a deadline for amendments and then have witnesses who I think will be adding a lot of content to Bill C-24, it just doesn't make sense. It's not logical. It doesn't make sense to say “Well, we appreciate your testimony, but we've already closed off the possibility for amendments”.

I can understand Ms. Guergis's concern that we set a date. We're talking about a couple of days more and witnesses appearing on Tuesday. It's through nobody's fault that today's session was with the trade officials rather than with the witnesses who we brought forward. That was unfortunate, but that's what happened.

So, given that we had to change that date, it makes sense to keep the possibility for amendments open until the end of the business day on Tuesday so there would be time, from the testimony, for any direct amendments that any member around this committee chooses to be put forward--and it respects the witnesses, as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Ms. Guergis, go ahead, please.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I just want to remind you that we were of course very flexible in agreeing to change that date to provide for the witnesses. As long as you acknowledge that--

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

I do.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

--and as long as I have a firm commitment of everyone around the table that we're not going to be asking for other extensions, I would really appreciate that, since we had sent a letter out. We've been firm, and now we've set another date.

Can we agree to stick to this date? Can we?

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Yes.

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

I have a comment on it. We heard again today that this money is not going to flow until we get this agreement passed. And we're dealing with the enabling legislation. The agreement is in place, and I'm certainly not suggesting anyone's trying to hold up this legislation, but let's get this done as fast as we can.

I also have a problem. We set Friday as the day, and now we're going to extend it. I fundamentally have a problem with extending it because we've set the dates and we need to move on, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

We have agreed, Mr. Menzies. The committee did agree previously that we will extend the time, if needed, for clause-by-clause on Thursday.

I think we should try to accommodate. Well, it's not up to me, of course. The subcommittee agreed to bring this to the committee. It's up to this committee to decide, and that's why we're discussing it here.

Monsieur Cardin.

[Serge Cardin, Bloc, Sherbrooke, QC]

Mr. Chairman, even if the deadline for tabling amendments is differed, it will not change the date when we will start our clause-by-clause study.

Technically, it will not delay our work. It is not a problem. Of course, some people will have less time to study these amendments, see if they are admissible and put them in the notice paper. Technically, it doesn't delay the study of the bill.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Sorry?

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

May we have confirmation that we're not going to be asking for any...so I'm cool with that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Yes. So is there agreement of the committee or...?

Monsieur LeBlanc.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

Mr. Chairman, I entirely agree with Mr. Cardin on what he just said.

Mr. Temelkovski, who was at the meeting, told us about your discussions. On our side, we shall table two amendments that are not highly controversial. You will get them today or tomorrow at the latest.

We are sensitive to what the government representatives, Mr. Harris and Mr. Menzies, have just said as to the importance of deliberating in a responsible manner.

We would like to start Thursday as agreed, and we hope to finish rapidly the clause-by-clause study. On our side, we shall try not to delay anything, in view of the realities you just described.

Like many other people, we have identified some weaknesses in the agreement, but that is another matter. I believe that we are at a stage when we must go forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

We've agreed to extend the time on Thursday, and we'll have ample time to go through clause-by-clause. On the notice, we'll have added extra time in terms of nine to one. We may even add another time later on, but we're not likely to need it.

Something that will really help is the cross-reference for standard clauses, which is about 90% of this bill, a standard used in other legislation. Every member will be able to cross-reference ahead of time the clauses in Bill C-24 to the clauses in the Excise Tax Act, the Income Tax Act, and the other acts these clauses are used in. It should be helpful in dealing with the standard clauses more quickly.

Yes, Mr. LeBlanc.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

I have a very quick question, Mr. Chair.

We electronically filed with the clerk amendments that we seek to have before the committee, but they were in English. Do the people at the Library of Parliament and others do the translation? I have them in one language and I wanted to make sure.

I have something to ask. May I ask the clerk if he would be kind enough, when it will have been translated, to send me the French version? I would like to share it with my colleagues. There are no secrets. I only wish to distribute the two versions when they will be available.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

It happens, of course.

Is there any more discussion on this? Can we agree to this now?

Ms. Guergis.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Can I talk about another section?

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

I was going to deal with one section at a time. If we can agree to this, we can then go on to the next one.