Evidence of meeting #25 for International Trade in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was going.
A recording is available from Parliament.
September 29th, 2010 / 3:35 p.m.
The Clerk of the Committee Mr. Paul Cardegna
Honourable members of the committee, I see a quorum.
We can now proceed to the election of the chair.
I am taking motions for the position of chair.
3:35 p.m.
Liberal
John Cannis Liberal Scarborough Centre, ON
I would like to nominate our esteemed colleague, Mr. Lee Richardson, for chair.
3:35 p.m.
The Clerk
Mr. Cannis has nominated Mr. Richardson.
Are there any other nominations?
3:35 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
I would like to second the nomination of my colleague from Calgary Centre, the esteemed Lee Richardson, because he invited me to the stampede this summer and he is an all-round good guy.
3:35 p.m.
Conservative
3:35 p.m.
The Clerk
I have a nomination for Mr. Richardson to be chair of the committee.
Are there any other nominations?
I declare Mr. Richardson duly elected chair of the committee.
3:35 p.m.
Some hon. members
Hear, hear!
3:35 p.m.
The Clerk
If the committee consents, we will proceed to the election of the vice-chairs. I trust there is consent.
I'm now ready to take nominations for first vice-chair. I remind committee members it has to be a member of the official opposition.
3:35 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
I would like to nominate Mr. Cannis, the member from Scarborough Centre, who is one of the ranking members on this committee and a man of great honesty and ability.
3:35 p.m.
The Clerk
I have a nomination for John Cannis made by Mr. Julian.
Are there any other nominations for the position of first vice-chair?
There being no other nominations, I declare Mr. Cannis elected first vice-chair.
3:35 p.m.
Some hon. members
Hear, hear!
3:35 p.m.
The Clerk
I would remind you that the position of second vice-chair must be held by a member of an opposition party other than the official opposition party.
I am now ready to proceed with nominations.
3:35 p.m.
Conservative
3:35 p.m.
The Clerk
Mr. Laforest has been nominated by Mr. Richardson.
Are there any other nominations?
I declare Mr. Laforest duly elected second vice-chair of the committee.
3:35 p.m.
Some hon. members
Hear, hear!
3:35 p.m.
The Clerk
We'll now invite Mr. Richardson to take the chair.
3:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson
That concludes the business of the day. With the consent of the committee, we might just have a very brief discussion about future business and probably get out of here before 4 o'clock, if that's agreeable to everybody.
Do I have the consent of the committee for a general discussion? Good.
First I'd like to welcome Martha, but she's not here. Please give her our best regards.
We had kind of a late start this session, and I think there were some outstanding things we were going to talk about. I think it was the previous direction of the committee that we might try to work in some travel to some potential future free trade targets, including the European Union. Others, including India and China, had also been mentioned, and I can't recall what else had been suggested.
In any event, there have been a number of requests and expressions of interest by member states of the European Union, and these are now pressing that agenda. This is also something I think we previously talked about. It's such a broad area that it was suggested that if we did travel we would perhaps in this case split the committee, perhaps travelling to Brussels together for a few days and then dividing up into two or three groups to travel around. It's difficult to go with more than two groups because we have to bring along extra staff, which can make it cumbersome.
In any event, that is what I thought, and I kind of want to get that going. If we're going to do that, it seems the target weeks would be at the end of October. If we're going to do Europe by the end of October, we had better get the wheels in motion.
The other one I had pegged in my mind was India, probably in February. I just wanted to kick it off.
In terms of ongoing business, I think there is at least the EU. That's where I would be going, unless somebody else had some thoughts on where to proceed beginning on Monday.
So we'll have just a quick round if anybody has any comments on that idea. As I say, if we're going to do a fall trip, we have to get it going.
Mr. Silva and then Mr. Julian.
3:40 p.m.
Liberal
Mario Silva Liberal Davenport, ON
I just wanted to know, Mr. Chair, given the fact that the first item that is probably going to be at hand in our committee is going to be free trade between Canada and Jordan, and also with Panama, shouldn't that also be where the committee should be concentrating the trips, as opposed to the European Union...?
3:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson
Yes. Normally I would say that is the case, except that the committee has previously been to Jordan and to Panama, although it has been a while and not all members of this committee as it's now constituted have been--gosh, I don't know if more than two have. That's a good notion. We're obviously going to be dealing with those matters as a committee in the near future, so yes.
Why don't we just think about those things? I'd like the initial thoughts for now. Maybe we'll spend Monday ferreting this out. Talk to your whips and your policy people about what is of interest to you so we can make some decisions on Monday about where we're going to go and how we're going to do it. If Jordan and Panama are vital, we'll have to put that in the pot.
Mr. Julian.
3:40 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I think it would be very difficult to schedule something for the end of October. If we were looking at Europe, I would assume that it would take a couple of months to put that together effectively, so we're probably looking at the end of November.
Right now Parliament has directed us to look into the Canada-Jordan free trade agreement. That will take a number of weeks, so perhaps it would be the place that we'll have to start. We also have the motion potentially into hearings with AbitibiBowater. I think if we have a few weeks then, going into a potential trip to Europe would make sense, particularly at this juncture, but I would assume it's going to take seven or eight weeks to set that up, and that takes us through the fall. Then there's the potential for Panama, which is a more problematic agreement, of course, and then the potential for a trip to India before a spring election.
That's a pretty full agenda, so I think we're going to have to pare back. Most likely it would be the trip to India, I would think.
3:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson
Yes. That's fair enough. I think that all makes sense, but I do want to get everything on the table.
Mr. Keddy.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Congratulations on your re-election.
The end of October would be problematic for me, but it may be the best time for the committee. If that's the case, I have no difficulty with it.
I do agree, though, that Jordan is probably the first priority. It would make sense at probably the end of November or the first of December, if we could find time to get there. I also wonder, particularly on Brussels and the agreement with the EU, if we couldn't combine that, and if, instead of a direct flight to Jordan, we could combine that with a flight to Brussels, and then Brussels to Jordan or something like that. Maybe that way we could get in an extra day or two on something else.
Again, October is not good for me, but if it's good for the rest of the committee, that's fine.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson
Yes. Well, again, I just wanted.... I'm not nailing things down, but it does sound like a bit of a stretch to try to get anything done by the end of October.
Mr. Silva again.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
Mario Silva Liberal Davenport, ON
Yes, just very briefly. Actually, my point was already made by Mr. Keddy, I think. In fact, I don't think there is a direct flight to Jordan, so we would have to go to Europe anyway. So you might as well use a day or two while you are there in Europe to do the business of the committee and then go off to Jordan. To me that would make sense.