David Emerson

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, my hon. colleague, the Minister of Natural Resources, just came back from a conference in Greenland, where a number of countries with an interest in the Arctic were working very constructively around issues of the continental shelf and the resolution of the management of the environment, of the economy and of shipping up in the Arctic. To me, that is diplomacy.

We are working constructively. We will work through the United Nations, but we need hardware, aircraft, vessels and satellite capacity. We will have to do more than just talk.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, what the hon. member should realize is the government has a very strong and aggressive strategy for the Arctic. We are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in icebreaker and patrol vessel capacity and in port capacity in the north, in mapping the seabed in the north, in preparing ourselves for the boundary resolution under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea.

There is a massive effort underway that focuses on a broad range of areas in the Arctic. I believe this will open up Canada's Arctic like never before.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, I want to review the government's participation in Sudan. Canada is a very major contributor to the development and protection of human rights in Sudan. Since January 2006, Canada has provided over $431 million in voluntary contributions toward the establishment of lasting peace in Sudan. In addition to our assessed contributions of $84 million for the UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan, Canada will invest up to $191 million in voluntary contributions toward long term peace in 2008-09. This will mean a total investment of up to $275 million in 2008-09. Across three areas, there is $155 million for security, including assessed contributions; $100 million for aid; and $20 million for diplomacy.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, I believe I gave the hon. member that number earlier. I think it was $270 million as I recall, but I will check that with my officials.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, I have been in this portfolio for a couple of days and one thing is clear that we have been doing and will continue to do and that is to aggressively participate in supporting the UN, working under UN mandates such as in Afghanistan, in Sudan and elsewhere in the world. The position in the Security Council is not up until 2010. We will cross that bridge in due course.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, if the evidence was overwhelming that there was a major circumvention of these sanctions, the government would clearly have to consider further steps, but at the present time there is no such evidence. All the evidence we are seeing suggests the sanctions are very effective. We see little point in setting up what in all likelihood would become a potentially monstrous bureaucracy to try to chase funds that would be channelled around the globe and in through the back door.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, we clearly are tracking publicly available data. We are tracking the exports and imports. We are tracking such direct investment information as we can access. Those numbers have been shrinking and they are now extremely small.

For us to set up a very expensive bureaucracy simply to ask companies to register direct investments in a sanctioned country like Burma would be, to me, a total waste of money. If a company wanted to wilfully evade the rules, and I do not sense there are those companies out there, it would be very easy to find a way of channelling the money which would not be caught by any tracking of direct investment.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, the strategic review involves a number of cabinet level documents. What I certainly can do is to provide the member with a substantial amount of information that was part of those documents, and I am perfectly willing to do that. However, I cannot give him classified cabinet documents.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, we certainly have had what is called an internal government strategic review done focused on foreign affairs. That work has been ongoing for a couple of years. It has helped to shape budget decision making and it certainly has given guidance in terms of the strategic directions that we are taking in a variety of areas, and helped to shape the broad themes and parameters of our foreign policy.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, we have a series of strategic vision documents in foreign affairs and international trade. Much of them relate to the trade side, with which of course I am most familiar. I am just getting myself into the foreign affairs side of it and will be assessing the documents that articulate the overall vision, in terms of foreign affairs and the future of our department.