International Trade Committee on June 4th, 2008

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Mr. Julian.

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

I think we know what the problem is: essentially, if there's a move by the government this summer to sign a Canada–Colombia trade agreement, this committee has to complete its work on Canada–Colombia. As far as the regulatory regime is concerned, this doesn't in any way stop the government from doing all the preparatory work.

To Mr. Keddy--through you, Mr. Chair--you are well aware of that.

So this artificial deadline that all of a sudden we've got to get something done in the next 72 hours or things will collapse simply is not true. What this would allow us to do, if we finish Canada–Colombia before the break, is we could come back and have the hearings that need to be held around EFTA. If you're saying that amendments won't be accepted by the government, then it doesn't matter in terms of the regulatory regime. You'll simply impose the work we've already done. So you can come back to it in September and this committee can take two or three sessions and we'll see how we feel about EFTA after hearing from witnesses.

But we have an obligation to hear those witnesses. We have witnesses on Colombia set up on Monday next week, from the Canadian Labour Congress, for example. They were already reserved and ready to go, so we should proceed as we had planned and do that next week and provide some guidance on Colombia to the government before the end of the session.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Mr. Cannan.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

This is through you, Mr. Chair, to Mr. Bains: did you say you're open to having additional meetings next week? I just want to clarify.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Brampton South, ON]

I'm saying I'm open to anything that can help move the agenda forward, but it's up to the committee to decide if additional meetings are required and what times will be allocated.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

I'd like to move that we have additional meetings next week, the necessary meetings to hear the witnesses for Colombia as requested, and we can complete and consider Bill C-55 next week.

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Brampton South, ON]

As I said, it's up to the committee. It's not a threat to me. I'm ready to work and I work really hard.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I'm sorry, Mr. Cannan has the floor.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Call the question, Chair. It's not going to get done, the way we are going.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Monsieur Cardin.

[Serge Cardin, Bloc, Sherbrooke, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I raised a number of points earlier, but, in the light of the comments I received, there is, as you said, nothing to change in the FTA. But there are still things that we could clarify.

Given that we could make comments or recommendations to the government about Colombia before the end of the session and it could be wrapped up over the summer, it is urgent that we finish the study on Colombia before negotiations are concluded and an agreement is signed.

I will be very unhappy if I have not been able to make formal recommendations before the agreement is signed. You say that there is nothing that can be done. We will have time to finish with the file when we come back in September. So I consider the Colombia file to be urgent. We can add more meetings if we want to table a report before the end of the session.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Right now we have two more witnesses. They were going to be the final two witnesses for the consideration of Colombia. We've had a lot, and my sense is we're getting into a bit of redundancy. Many of the witnesses seem to be somewhat polarized, whether they're speaking on one side or the other side. We have these two witnesses already scheduled for Monday—the CLC and Pork International.

We might well conclude with our witnesses on Monday, and if there are any others we want to hear from, we might also do them Monday. I suggest for this reason that we could well conclude our consideration of Colombia. The clerk and the analysts have been writing the report as we go along. If we were able to conclude Colombia on Monday, that would give the analysts time to complete the report.

If we had maybe one extra meeting next Tuesday and could begin discussion of EFTA on Tuesday, then, at our regular meeting on Wednesday, I'm suggesting it's possible to conclude EFTA and consider the draft of the report.

Could you do it by Wednesday?

Okay, it will be the following Monday.

It's going to take a while to do the report, so we could take two days. Then we'll just take it over to the following Monday.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Monday we do Colombia, and Wednesday we do the EFTA. Is that right?

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Yes, and then we're back to review the report the following week. We presumably still have two more meetings in the following week and could wrap up.

If we can do this, that will mean we would have the final meeting of witnesses for Colombia on Monday next, June 9, and then would have a special meeting on Tuesday, June 10, and a regular meeting on Wednesday, June 11, at which point it would be possible to conclude our discussion of EFTA. That could be then sent back to the House.

We would return on Monday to consider the report. We could have the report by Friday of next week, I think. We talked about that. I think we could have the report by Friday so that you could have it over the weekend. We've been talking about this for a while, trying to get it done.

In any event, that would take care of getting it all done by the end of June, if it works. I'm not going to ask for a vote, because I'm not going to have any more bickering back and forth. Let's go Monday with the witnesses and the meeting we have scheduled, and if we have any time at the end of Monday, then we can ratify what I've just suggested to you.

Mr. Julian, as usual you have the final word.

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

Mr. Chair, there are some witnesses who haven't gone through their process who have been submitted, so I think—

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Well, we have to cut it off at some point, Peter. I asked you six months ago for your witness list, and we've more than accommodated your witness list.

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

Let me finish. I'm actually referring to the Bloc's witness list.

Those names need to come forward, and I would suggest next Wednesday for that. I'm not opposed to an extra meeting, but I—

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Okay, fine. I didn't wish to continue the debate, Peter.

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

Hold on; the issue here is making sure we hear from the appropriate witnesses on EFTA, and I'm not convinced that we can do this with a rushed plan.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Well, we're going to try.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Mr. Chair, I have a request for some witnesses who would be reporting to us the results of the compliance reports of the environmental and labour side agreements for NAFTA. We're basing our considerations of the Colombia free trade agreement on the fact that it's based on the NAFTA template. A lot of this is wrapped up around how effective these side agreements are for human rights and the environment.

A compliance report has been done by Canada, U.S., and Mexico neutral parties to review how the results of NAFTA have dovetailed with the side agreements. I think those compliance reports are very important indicators of whether or not, as we move forward, we agree that's a good template.

[Larry Miller, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

I think, Mr. Chairman, we don't need to have them here—

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Ms. Murray has the floor.

All right. I think that's a good point and I think that's something we can continue to discuss on Monday.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I think this one's pretty much expired.