International Trade Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2014

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank our guests today for a very engaging dialogue so far.

While Mr. Hoback was speaking, I went to get some tea. I was going to put some honey in it until I realized that it's a produit de France, a product of France. I don't want to offend anyone here, so I'll just set that aside for the time being. Perhaps when you're gone I might slide a little in, unless you find some good B.C. honey for me, and I'd be very grateful if you would, mayor.

By the way, Burnaby is a beautiful city. Congratulations to you for the honours that you obviously richly deserve, all of you. Councillor, I assume you're part of that as well, so let's throw an honourable mention to you as well. Thank you for that.

I'm going to start with Mr. Redlin, because I think he's feeling a little left out, and that's not right.

In your capacity with CUPE, I understand you're now retired, but you like it so much you're still kind of hanging on and doing more.

[Blair Redlin]

Because I did a lot of work on CETA, with this opportunity they asked me to come here and talk about CETA.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

So you speak from wisdom. How many years have you been involved in doing this, sir?

[Blair Redlin]

Twenty-three years with seniority.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

So you speak from some background and some wisdom.

[Blair Redlin]

I was a deputy minister in the provincial government here in B.C. as well. I was the deputy minister of employment investment for a period of time, and that included the trade policy shop.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

I come from Upper Canada, but I have to tell you, this is an absolutely stunning province.

Mr. Redlin, I have a question for you. You're talking about your focus on CETA, and I'm trying to understand where CUPE is in the mix of this. You look for balanced comments. You look for input that's constructive and supportive. That's the whole intention with our colleagues here. If I might ask you, in your capacity with CUPE and your understanding of them and any involvement you've had with any of the past deals that we've had, when Canada first struck the Canada-U.S. deal, was CUPE in favour of it?

[Blair Redlin]

No.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

When it was decided then to accelerate that to NAFTA, was CUPE in favour?

[Blair Redlin]

No.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Then we went south with the Liberals and they went to Chile. Was CUPE in favour?

[Blair Redlin]

I can't recall.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

It's a little bit since then.

On Costa Rica were you in favour?

[Blair Redlin]

I don't think we had too much to say about Costa Rica.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

On Colombia were you in favour?

[Blair Redlin]

No, we were definitely opposed.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

On Peru were you in favour?

[Blair Redlin]

I don't recall that they commented on Peru.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

What about Panama? We just passed that.

[Blair Redlin]

I don't think they talked about that.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Jordan's a little smaller, but it's on the other side.

[Blair Redlin]

No comments there.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Israel?

[Blair Redlin]

No comments there.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

I haven't listed them all, but that's probably a pretty good indication of CUPE's perspective. I'm not here to suggest that you don't support anything, but it strikes me that what I'm hearing is either no, you didn't, and there either may have not been some comment, or you don't recall.

What I'm trying to understand is I look back and I'm particularly struck by Canada-U.S. and Canada and NAFTA. Going back 20 to 23 years ago, do you know what Canada's exports were to the United States? Do you have a number?