Evidence of meeting #89 for International Trade in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was edc.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Trade Commissioner, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
At the moment, I know who the head of the office is.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Eighteen months later, after the strategy was launched, one person has been hired. That's an impressive rate.
Let's look at something else here.
The Canadian trade gateway in Southeast Asia has involved $24.1 million over five years. What's the status of that? How many people have been hired? How much money has been spent and what's the spend over the next 3.5 years? We're a year and a half in.
Chief Trade Commissioner, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Madam Chair, I can say that there is work on developing what the gateway will look like and how it will serve outside of the trade commissioner service, because obviously we do not want to duplicate the services that already exist. We are talking to folks who are interested in getting into the market about what will help them and what will be most useful for them in terms of getting on the ground there. Again, this is the responsibility of others who are working towards that goal.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
It sounds to me like, 18 months into the Indo-Pacific strategy and the Canadian trade gateway in Southeast Asia, we're just talking about doing some things. Is that an accurate assessment? Nothing's been set up. No one's been hired. No money has been spent.
Chief Trade Commissioner, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
I believe it's still in the development phase.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Thanks very much.
There's the expansion of natural resource ties with the Indo-Pacific region, for $13.5 million over five years. Does anyone have any idea what the status of that is 18 months after the launch of the strategy?
Chief Trade Commissioner, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Madam Chair, NRCan is leading that. I wouldn't be able to speak to that.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
What's the status of the agricultural office? Mr. Sidhu brought that up. You said that one person has been appointed. Is that what we talked about before? Was that the same envelope of funding?
Chief Trade Commissioner, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Madam Chair, I'm not an expert on what AAFC's process is or on whether there were different envelopes they were accessing. I do know that the head of that office is in place. I do not know the status of the rest of her office and whether she in fact has other people there or not. AAFC is leading that.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
One of the key partners in the Indo-Pacific is Japan. I understand you have spent some time in Japan. Would you say that LNG is something that Japan has been asking for from Canada?
Chief Trade Commissioner, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
I think it's very clear that they're involved and interested in accessing LNG.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
That's LNG specifically from Canada. They've asked Canada for LNG. Is that correct?
Chief Trade Commissioner, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
They've made some investments in LNG in Canada.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
What's the current government's position? Are you aware of whether or not the government plans to export any LNG to Japan?
January 30th, 2024 / 5:05 p.m.
Chief Trade Commissioner, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
I'm not in a position to say that.
Conservative
Kyle Seeback Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Okay. Thank you very much.
Those are all of my questions. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Welcome to the committee, Ms. Wilshaw.
Whenever I travel abroad, I go to Canadian embassies and high commissions, and I always make a point of meeting the trade commissioners. In my view, they have the most important positions in any Canadian mission.
Our trade with the U.S. is so big, but finding information on the trade commissioner service outside of the North American market is very difficult. It's very difficult for me to say how good, bad or great it is outside of North America. It's very difficult to access that information.
I would like just a quick clarification before I go in. You mentioned that one person has been appointed under the Indo-Pacific strategy office that has been set up, but you actually don't know how many people have been employed. You can't know that for sure, so it is plausible that others have also been employed, but you may not be aware of it.
Chief Trade Commissioner, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
That is correct. It is with Agriculture Canada.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
Now, were you part of the June 2022 Canada-U.S. supply chains progress report?
Chief Trade Commissioner, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
No, sir. That is not a part of my—
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
Okay. I had questions about that, because we are dealing with the supply chain.
Are you aware of any reports on the items that are considered to be critical or essential under the supply chain scenario, if a pandemic hits again?
Chief Trade Commissioner, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Madam Chair, I think that would fall to Public Services and Procurement Canada and also to ISED. They look at critical...and vulnerabilities in our supply chain.
Liberal
Chandra Arya Liberal Nepean, ON
Thank you.
Coming back to the trade commissioner service, you mentioned—and I'm glad to know this—that ICT is one of your biggest customer bases or fields, but outside of North America, who are the top three biggest customers?
