Evidence of meeting #16 for Status of Women in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was aid.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
It's on MDG, yes, on the millennium development goals.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
No, excuse me, Mr. Calandra, I think you're not listening.
There are eight millennium development goals.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
I understand there are eight development goals, Madam Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
We are dealing with MDG 4 and 5, and you are discussing--which is Ms. Neville's point--other millennium development goals, so you are off--
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
I wonder how the George Bush question earlier related to millennium development goals 4 and 5, Madam Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Mr. Calandra, will you allow the chair to finish, please?
You have brought in other millennium development goals. That is Ms. Neville's contention, on a point of order. I agree with her point of order because the topic here is specific. We have said so. When I began this, we clearly said what this issue is about, so I would ask you, please, to stick to the discussion in place, millennium development goals 4 and 5, and not any of the other eight. Thank you.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
On that similar point of order, Madam Chair, I notice that you didn't step in when we were talking about the former U.S. President. I suppose that was a different thing.
And I suspect--
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
You also accused me of not stepping in when the former President was mentioned. I think it was also pertaining to MDG 4 and 5, so we were still on topic.
I would ask you to please direct your question so that it's pertinent to the topic we are discussing.
Thank you.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Anyway, to continue, they talk about the need to improve agriculture so people can feed themselves, so mothers and children can have better lives, mothers can be healthier when they are pregnant, and the children who are born to these mothers can have a better start. I would suggest that agriculture and feeding people are very important parts of maternal care, both before and after.
They also--
Canadian Representative, White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood
Nobody would dispute that. It's an important point to raise because Canada has played a leadership role in terms of agriculture for many years.
Am I to understand that you're recommending we use agricultural technology to create genetically modified and hopefully sterile sperm as part of a solution to this issue?
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
No. What I'm suggesting is that the report here suggested that there are opportunities to have certain types of proven agricultural crops and seeds that resist drought used in certain circumstances that have been approved so the people in these nations can have better outcomes.
The Africa Steering Group also talks about health care. They talk about the need for essential drugs so we can get medicines there. And they talk about what I think you touched on, Mr. Fox, logistics and care when you're there--
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Mr. Calandra, excuse me. You have gone over time. You are now at 5 minutes and 31 seconds. You are skirting my ruling here, because you're continuing to discuss what is not pertinent to the millennium goals 4 and 5. I would ask you to please stick to the topic or I will have to cite you in contempt of the chair.
Please, Mr. Calandra. Your time is up anyway, so I will now move on to Madame Deschamps for the Bloc Québécois....
Yes, Mr. Calandra.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
On a point of order, please, I wonder if my time included your interventions. Did you stop the clock on the interventions?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
No, your time is now almost six minutes. My interventions are included in that.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
I would just then continue on this point of order.
I guess I interpret agriculture, health care, and infrastructure as important aspects of maternal health, and I'm sorry that you disagree with that as being important for maternal health. I wish I would have had the opportunity to have our guests talk about that.
Perhaps after the meeting we can get together and we can talk personally, because the chair certainly doesn't want to hear about those things.
I leave it to the next person.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Mr. Calandra, you are being too cute for words, I will say.
Madame Deschamps.
Bloc
Johanne Deschamps Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Madam Chair, I only have five minutes left and I would have so much to say.
Firstly, to all of you here, could you give us a picture of what an unwanted pregnancy can mean in a developing country?
Secondly, the government is stating that it has doubled its aid. However, this same government announced that as of 2011 it was going to freeze the whole international aid envelope. So there is a paradox. I do not know if you understand the message. We are so very far from the 2015 objectives. Moreover, Canada is 16th in the list of the 20 OECD member countries as concerns international aid, if it is not 18th. I think that we are victims of what the United States experienced during the Bush era. We are being borne on an ideological right-wing wave that is not a fair reflection of Canada, one in which we do not recognize ourselves—this is their Canada, not my Canada.
Liberal
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
When I want others to talk about what I think, I will give them that right. Here, we are within a committee we have guests and I do not want to be associated with former President Bush. Earlier, someone made a point of order and now it is my turn. We are here to talk about maternal health. If the member wants to support certain ideologies, let her do so with her group, but not with me.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Madame Boucher, I feel it is pertinent to the question in the same way that after I made a ruling, I allowed Mr. Calandra to then take his whole agricultural piece and relate it to maternal health. I allowed him to do that, and Ms. McTeer responded to it.
As long as what you're asking eventually has bearing on the particular topic here, and as long as you can relate it to the particular topic, I will allow for people to digress, if they wish. But they must come back to this; this is a piece that pertains to maternal and infant morbidity and mortality, which is what we're discussing here.
I allowed Mr. Calandra to move his seeds and grains piece into nutrition and how that affects maternal health. That was a reasonable thing for him to do.
Madame Deschamps is also relating this to what she considers, in my understanding of her question, to be an ideological issue with regard to maternal health. She's citing an example.
Go ahead, Ms. Deschamps.
Johanne Deschamps Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
In any case, I was alluding to what Ms. Camp said herself concerning the conditions that prevailed in the United States and the evolution she would like to see there now.
I put two questions and I would like to hear the answers, please. I am asking for this as a matter of respect for our witnesses.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Guttmacher Institute
The first question was, what do we mean by an “unintended pregnancy”? This is a technical definition. It is what women themselves say about a recent pregnancy, that it either was unwanted or that it occurred two or more years earlier than they wanted.
Health risks in pregnancy are greatest if pregnancies occur too early in a woman's life, say, before she's 20, when her body is finally fully developed and ready to bear a child, if pregnancies are too closely spaced together, or if they occur too late in a woman's life. Many unintended pregnancies fall into one or more of those categories.
They involve very high health risks to the mother as well as poor prospects for the newborn and infant.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Does anyone else wish to answer the question Madame Deschamps posed?
No?
Mr. Fox.