International Trade Committee on Feb. 5th, 2009

[Serge Cardin, Bloc, Sherbrooke, QC]

We will begin with that next week, and then we will be able to provide you with a list of issues to be discussed down the line.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Okay. I might add, as well, that if we are going to proceed in this direction, I would request that committee members bring a list of potential witnesses. As a matter of fact, you might get those in as soon as possible, even by the end of business tomorrow, so the clerks have time to reach these witnesses to see if they are available.

Let's start there. Get them in as soon as you can. We won't have a cut-off for hearing witnesses.... If there is a growing consensus that we're going to move to EFTA next week, we'll want to hear witnesses as early as Thursday. To give them adequate time, may I ask members to submit their lists of potential witnesses to the clerk. The clerk will determine who we will hear and in what order.

We have a bunch of people who want to talk. I think we're moving around the table to Mr. Julian first, and then Mr. Harris, and Mr. Silva.

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

Mr. Chair, I think Mr. Cannis has raised the issue of estimates and the minister. I agree with him that this should be our first priority. I know you had spoken earlier about having a departmental briefing. I think that's something we could actually set up outside of the bounds of the committee for new members who want to get a briefing from the department. They could certainly do that on the side. But with respect to the estimates, I agree with Mr. Cannis that they are the utmost priority, and getting the minister here.

So what Mr. Cannis has said and Mr. Cardin has said--

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

You can't speak for Mr. Cannis, but you can speak for Mr. Julian.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

If I may continue, Mr. Cannis talked about estimates and Mr. Cardin talked about EFTA. I would agree that those really are two priorities. Certainly we have a number of witnesses we'd want to bring forward on EFTA.

So in a sense, our agenda for next week is already there if we're looking at Tuesday, the minister and estimates, and Thursday, EFTA.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Mr. Allison.

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West—Glanbrook, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Once again, I know we've heard witnesses on EFTA, and I suspect that at some point there should be a motion to bring forward all that testimony. My question is how many more witnesses do we want to call back if we bring all that information back as testimony?

I just present that as a possible option. We can discuss that; I know we're getting late in the day here.

It's not that we don't have the information. We can bring that all back from the last Parliament. It may cut down on the time of bringing back witnesses to say the same thing as they said last time.

I just present this to the committee as a possible option. Once again, maybe the new members will want to hear some witnesses, but I don't think we need duplication. We can defer that to the committee to decide what they want to do.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Mr. Keddy.

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

I agree with Dean on this. We've heard a lot of witnesses on EFTA. There's been a lot of work.

Probably for the benefit of all the committee members, especially the new members, the first thing we should do is have the clerk prepare a package on EFTA, on the debate that occurred and the witnesses who were heard. If we could get that fairly quickly, then all members could get up to speed on the bill. It's before the House now.

The chair will need to try to arrange a time. We should probably have the minister here. We do have a busy agenda. There are a number of trade agreements before us. We've already gone through EFTA from beginning to end, really. It hasn't passed through the House.

So if members have certain issues they want to dwell on with regard to the EFTA agreement, maybe we could take a committee meeting or two and look at those, but really this bill should be coming back to the House ASAP for a vote.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you, Mr. Keddy.

Did you want to add something, Mr. Cannan?

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

I have the same general sentiment, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Mr. Cannis.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Let me clarify my request with respect to having the minister here. I've said in the past and I'll say again that no matter who's in government, there's no sense in having the minister for the sake of having the minister. We know that their schedules are quite busy.

What I'm suggesting to you, Mr. Chairman, is that we begin to notify the minister. It's highly unlikely that we're going to have him within a week--two, maybe--but to me, we're just setting out an agenda. Unless we're asking the minister to come and give us a briefing on the department, which is highly unlikely, I believe it would be more advantageous to all of us to hear a briefing from the department even before the minister arrives, or to engage with the EFTA legislation.

So on the minister's request that I put to you, sir, it's a priority, but it's not your first or second priority, if I may place it as such. Just map it out and send notification so that the minister can plan his schedule.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I'm going to wrap this up, because I think there are two things we have to do here. One is that I think we have a general consensus that we would start next week, on Tuesday, with a briefing from department officials--if I could ask the parliamentary secretary to request that, and the clerk--on the department generally, concluding with a departmental briefing on EFTA.

Then we would proceed on Tuesday with the calling of witnesses. I will require a motion for that from the committee. I would ask members to get their lists in so that we can begin hearing witnesses on Thursday next. By the close of the meeting on Tuesday next week, I think we'll have a sense of how many witnesses the committee wants to hear. I would like you to put your minds to that, how long you think it will be necessary to debate EFTA. Perhaps we can come to a consensus on that. Then at the conclusion of that debate, we might then request the minister to appear before the committee, once we have concluded the EFTA debate.

Am I getting a consensus on that?

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Okay, with that general consensus, I would ask for a motion to call witnesses.

Could you get a wording for that?

[The Clerk]

Can we just agree to this?

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Do I have agreement on that?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Fine, we have agreement. We'll proceed on that basis.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I want to thank you for a good start, folks, and I hope we can do this again on Tuesday.

The meeting is adjourned.