Natural Resources Committee on Nov. 27th, 2013

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Julian, if you interrupt again, I'm going to go on to the next questioner. Just allow the minister to answer.

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I'm going to keep repeating it until I get to say it without interruption.

I can see that you're sad that the public now knows that there's a geographical challenge here. Your leader thought it was closer to China from the east coast than from the west coast, so I brought that to your attention.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Minister, I just asked to have—

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Regan, go ahead, please, with your question.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Oh, you've got to be kidding.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

You interrupted the minister three times after I'd—

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

I'm asking him a specific question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

After I'd asked you not to, Mr. Julian, you refused to let the—

We're not going to conduct a meeting like that, so I'll go to Mr. Regan—

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Mr. Benoit, absolutely not.

Point of order, Mr. Chair, you cannot—

I asked a simple question about advertising money that was spent by the public. It is a question of decency that the minister actually answers that question. We're talking about advertising budgets for 2013–14.

Quite frankly, Mr. Chair, you know as well as I do that's what we're here for, not for partisan attacks. I simply asked him about the advertising budget, and I would ask, through you, that he actually answer that question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Julian, if you hadn't interrupted three times, he probably would have answered it by now.

Mr. Regan, go ahead.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Mr. Chair, you cannot do this.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

On a point of order, Mr. Chairman—

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

I can do it, and I will, if you're going to interrupt, Mr. Julian.

Go ahead, Mr. Reagan.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

On the point of order, I would encourage you to act here in a neutral fashion and hold both parties, really, to control themselves, because we've had very partisan attacks in both directions. It's obviously a partisan environment, but the question Mr. Julian is asking about the advertising is reasonable, and I bet the minister would be prepared to answer it.

Why don't we give him a chance to answer?

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Regan, I appreciate your input on this.

Mr. Julian, as long as you do not interrupt again, I will change my decision and allow the minister to answer your question.

Do you remember the question, Minister? Yes.

Ms. Hughes, do you want to say something now on the point of order?

[Carol Hughes, NDP, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

Yes, I was going to briefly say on the point of order that when it is our time, we are able to speak that time out according to what we are asking questions on.

It is up to us. If the witness is not answering the question, we can ask them to refer back to that question, and that's exactly what Mr. Julian had asked.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Actually, Ms. Hughes, you're wrong. Mr. Julian brought up the issue of the minister's comments. He was responding to that, and I'm sure he was getting on to replying, but Mr. Julian interrupted three times.

Go ahead, Minister, if you'd like to answer Mr. Julian's question.

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Okay. I dealt with the first part of the question, and now I'll deal with the advertising, which I think was where you wanted to go.

The government has a responsibility to provide Canadians with facts to assist them in making informed decisions. This engagement and outreach campaign will raise awareness in key international markets that Canada is an environmentally responsible and reliable supplier of natural resources. The international stakeholder outreach and engagement campaign will raise awareness in American and other international markets that Canada has those qualities of security, reliability, and is environmentally responsible.

Responsible development of our natural resources will create high-quality jobs and growth, and we are promoting that. As I mentioned during my remarks, the resource area supports 1.8 million jobs, right across the country, and almost one-fifth of the economy.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Point of order, Mr. Julian.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

I'm sorry, I have asked this question three times. It's simply asking for an amount, and what we have is a minister who is filibustering.

Through you, could you ask him to answer the question?

He's here for the supplementary estimates (B). I've asked him for the advertising amount for 2013–14. He has those figures. Could he give them to us?

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Julian, what I heard was background information explaining what the money was spent on. I'm sure he will get to the amount.

Minister, would you like to complete your answer?

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Sure.

Well, look, the supplementary estimates (B) lists $12.9 million—well, let's say almost $13 million for the campaign, which is approximately half of the $24 million outlined. There is also a domestic advertising program, which was announced, in total of $16.5 million, of which—

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Thank you, Minister. So it is a total of $40 million.

[Joe Oliver, Conservative, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

That's the total.