International Trade Committee on March 8th, 2021

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Yes, I'm moving it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Sheehan, you are next, and then Ms. Bendayan.

[Terry Sheehan, Liberal, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Thank you very much.

I have a similar question about order of precedence. You've outlined a number of things coming down the pipe, and Tracy, Alistair and I talked about some motions that we could use as well. Could we hear from the clerk, just for clarity, about how order of precedence would happen?

The notice of motion that I introduced Thursday afternoon on studying green technology and exports was distributed in both official languages. Just for clarity, one thing I did not say is that I see it as a three- or four-meeting study. In other committees, in the ebb and flow of how business is done, sometimes we get at things very quickly and then find we have an hour left here or there, whereby we could perhaps entertain various other studies that could be plugged in throughout our time, instead of devoting time to do it all at once.

Those are some of my thoughts about committee business. If I could hear from the clerk about order of precedence, it would help me think about our future committee business.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Madam Clerk.

[The Clerk]

There is no order of precedence. A motion can be adopted by a committee to undertake a study and the study might never be done, because of a lack of time or because there are other emergencies. As for the private member's bill, if it's referred to the committee, the committee will have 60 sitting days to report it back to the House.

The committee can decide to do the private member's bill first and the self-initiated studies afterwards, or otherwise. The calendar is up to the committee. As I said, by standing order, the committee has 60 sitting days to report a private member's bill back to the House.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Christine.

Ms. Bendayan.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I also thank the clerk of the committee for clarifying this.

Madam Chair, do you know when the private member's bill might be referred to our committee? I believe you mentioned the date earlier.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

It could happen this week, but there is no guarantee. Again, we will have 60 days to respond once we have it.

Could I make a suggestion?

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Sorry, Madam Chair, I was not finished.

I would also like to advise all members of the committee that the minister is available to appear before this committee on the estimates, as is the custom. I believe we have until May for that to happen. The minister is certainly interested in coming back to see colleagues on this committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Savard-Tremblay.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Following Ms. Bendayan's last comment, I wonder if the minister would also be willing to testify as part of the dispute resolution study. This would allow us to clarify Canada's position on this issue.

Do you think she might be interested?

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

I think this might indeed be of interest to her. However, I would add another meeting for the study at hand. Given what is before us, it will take a minimum of two meetings.

Today, we could agree that three meetings will be necessary if we are to invite the minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

To go back to the things we've already agreed to, we voted on the ISDS in the fall—last October, I believe—to have two meetings. It has now been suggested that we might want to have three meetings on the ISDS. We had already agreed we would do that.

For the WTO, we said possibly three meetings. If we have one more meeting and include the officials Mrs. Gray suggested this morning, if everybody is in favour of that, we would have a third meeting on the WTO with the officials for the last hour. We would start the ISDS. That starts us going in a direction.

We have two motions that were introduced this morning—both Mr. Sheehan's motion and Mrs. Gray's—if the committee wants to discuss those motions at this time.

Mrs. Gray.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I was going to mention that my motion is on the floor to discuss and vote on.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Are there any comments on Mrs. Gray's motion?

Do you want to speak to it in general terms, Mrs. Gray?

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Absolutely.

This is definitely a timely motion. We know the government has what's called the integrity declaration on doing business with Xinjiang entities. This is to look at how that is functioning. We know there was a vote in the House of Commons to declare this a genocide. That was voted on by members of Parliament. It's timely to look at this. We're talking about human rights. We're talking about looking at exports from that region of China. This is why this would be a timely study.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you Mrs. Gray.

Ms. Bendayan.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Allow me to thank my colleague Mrs. Gray for putting forward this important study for consideration. I do, however, believe that we have an entire committee that was created at the request of the Conservative Party to study our relationship with China, in particular the commercial relationship we have. Given the number of studies we have on the table at this committee, and given that there is a special committee that exists for this sole purpose, I would suggest to my colleagues that we have an outlet for this question, that it should be studied, and it will be studied at that other committee.

I understand there's a subcommittee meeting of the Canada-China special committee today. I would encourage all members of this committee to see if that issue being proposed by Mrs. Gray could be studied there, which would be far more appropriate.

Madam Chair, I believe you're on mute.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you. It's hard to keep going back and forth, I have to tell you guys. Thank you for your patience.

Mrs. Gray, did you have additional comments?

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Madam Chair, that particular committee is not focused on trade. They are focused on a lot of diplomatic and foreign relations, so this is absolutely appropriate with this committee. This is entirely focused on trade. Also, this was an initiative that was put forth by the government. It's a matter of looking at reviewing this to see how it's functioning within trade as of right now. That's the purpose of this. This is actually looking at something that exists and it absolutely falls within the trade committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you.

Mr. Aboultaif.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you.

This is long overdue, I believe, and could not come at a better time to study the trade relations, the rationale and all the dynamics of doing trade with China in view of everything that's happening right now. I think this is very critical and a priority. To have this on the schedule would be nice to see. Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thanks.

Madam Clerk, just for clarification, are the motions that were introduced today and introduced last week in order for this committee?

[The Clerk]

To my knowledge, the motions that were distributed are in order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you.

Okay, I see hands up. Between hands up and hands down and muting, it's an interesting process here.

Is there any further discussion on...? Mrs. Gray has moved her motion, which notice was duly given for. We should call a vote on Mrs. Gray's motion. Is everyone in agreement that we call a vote on Mrs. Gray's motion? I don't see anybody saying anything, so I'm going to go ahead with the vote.

Would you like a recorded vote on this motion, Mrs. Gray?