International Trade Committee on Sept. 25th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Good morning everybody. Welcome on this rainy morning.

We're continuing where we left off last Tuesday. It's been brought forward to us by the House to deal with Bill C-79. We're going clause by clause through the CPTPP. It was a very productive Tuesday.

Just to give you a heads-up, colleagues, when we're finished this, if everything goes the way we think it might go, we're going to go in camera with some future business at the end of our meeting.

Is everybody good to go?

I think we finished with clause 19. Did we, sir?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Olivier Champagne]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

We'll continue as usual. I'm not going to group them together. I'm going to go clause by clause.

I'll start right off the bat with clause 20.

(Clause 20 agreed to)

(Clause 21 agreed to)

(Clauses 21 to 50 inclusive agreed to on division)

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

That's all the clauses.

If everyone recalls from the previous meeting, we got stuck a little bit on clause 12. I think that's the only one. If my recollection is right, Ms. Ramsey had an amendment to clause 12, which she wanted to change a bit. That's the only one.

Ms. Ramsey, are you ready to talk about clause 12 and what you have brought forward?

(On clause 12)

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

Yes. Thank you, Chair.

Again, this is an amendment that I'm bringing forward in the interest of transparency and accountability.

If you look under the heading “Expenses”, you'll see, under clause 12, “The Government of Canada is to pay its appropriate share of the aggregate of”.

My amendment adds, after line 7 on page 5:

(2) As soon as feasible, but in any case within three months after the end of each year, the Minister must cause to be laid before each House of Parliament a report setting out the amount paid in accordance with subsection (1) during that year.

I think, Mr. Chair, there was some confusion that this might apply to other member countries, but it's very clear in the section that it's under that this is specific to the Government of Canada only. I went to the drafters and came back with this revision on the amendment. It's so that they would report back to Parliament on the cost of this particular section.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Are there any more comments on this amendment?

Mr. Hoback.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I just want to confirm this amendment with the officials.

Does it create any issues as far as the agreement itself is concerned? Does it create any situation where we cannot ratify the agreement?

[Bruce Christie, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Trade Policy and Negotiations and Lead Negotiator of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Our only comment with the original proposed amendment was to clarify that any of the reporting on the costs incurred by the joint commission would only be relating to those costs incurred by the Government of Canada. We wanted it to be clear that we weren't putting any other obligations on other CPTPP members to also provide these costs. The costs of the joint commission to administer this institution would be borne by all 11 members and future members.

From our technical perspective, the proposed amendment would be fine as long as it's made clear that we're referring to the amount paid by the Government of Canada in accordance with proposed subsection 1. I don't think it's our position to propose this, but it may lead to a couple of simple formatting questions in the clause.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Are there any more comments on this amendment?

Mr. Allison.

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West, ON]

Do we need to specify that, then? It doesn't say the Canadian government per se. Are you saying we may need a friendly amendment to fix that?

[Bruce Christie]

That would be helpful, yes.

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

I'm certainly open to that amendment. The actual category is quite clear—that it's about the Government of Canada—but I am open to the amendment including Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Do you want to read your amendment again or is everybody clear with what it's going to state?

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

I would ask the officials if they could propose the amendment, maybe with the legislative clerk. Could they make a recommendation as to how this could be implemented here?

[The Clerk]

What I have now is to add the words “by the Government of Canada” after the word “paid”. Am I correct?

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Do we understand this now?

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I'd like to clarify that. It would read, “setting out the amount paid by the Government of Canada in accordance with subsection”.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Are there any more comments on this?

Go ahead, Mr. Peterson.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

I'm not clear that this doesn't impact the other parties to the agreement. If it's about the aggregate, presumably everybody would have to submit all of their expenses to find out what the aggregate is. We're putting them on a timeline that they may not be willing to accept, and they're not here at the table to discuss it.

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

We just heard from the officials that this is not the case. That's what they conferred about, and they've come back to us to say there's no responsibility in changing this language. We don't put anything back onto the other member countries.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Well, I heard from the officials—

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Mr. Christie has a comment, if you don't mind, Mr. Peterson.

[Bruce Christie]

I wanted to clarify something. When I provided our view, I mentioned we would have to do a slight formatting change.

We propose that clause 12 becomes clause 12.1, with three proposed paragraphs—(a), (b) and (c)—and that the proposed amendment becomes clause 12.2. That way we make it completely clear that the additional reporting on expenses would be borne by the Government of Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Does everybody understand what Mr. Christie just said?

[The Clerk]

From a procedural point of view, it doesn't work because we're on clause 12. If we need to add a clause, then we should just deal with what the committee has before it right now and vote on clause 12. Then we can move the new clause as clause 12.1.