Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, thank you. I applaud the work you're doing because I think this is really important as we prepare for North American leaders' summit this fall. Having the committee make recommendations that can help the leaders will certainly be invaluable. By way of background I s

Foreign Affairs committee  Sir, I think the best way to deal with the paranoia is doing what in fact you are doing, which is the personal contact with your counterparts in the United States. My belief is that the two institutions that are probably best integrated in the positive sense, while maintaining

Foreign Affairs committee  Things have to change structurally in Mexico as well, but I think that in the long term we should be looking in terms of the North American perimeter at the integration in the longer term of Mexico into NORAD, for example, because NORAD now extends on water as well. That would be

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  My view is that institutes like the Permanent Joint Board on Defence and the International Joint Commission, which are based on the binational principle, where we attend in the same numbers and are seen as equals, work best for a country such as Canada in dealing with the United

Foreign Affairs committee  Sir, I think it is absolutely vital. Really, the tone at the top sets the stage for so much that follows. I think former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said it best when he said that of the relationships that matter for every prime minister, the one that is the most important, t

Foreign Affairs committee  Sir, do you mean from the American perspective?

Foreign Affairs committee  You've identified the two issues that Ambassador Heyman and his predecessor, Ambassador Jacobson, feel that we've gone some distance on but not far enough, namely, supply management and intellectual property, particularly as it relates to patent protection. They feel we're out of

Foreign Affairs committee  In my view, the impact was minor because we decided to hold a conference this winter. It is preferable to hold a conference. As you know, a few years ago, we cancelled the conference and that did have an impact. At the end of February, given the visa controversy and the Keystone

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll just briefly say that I think the work that the three ministers are doing and the fact that, coming out of yesterday's meeting in Mexico, they've agreed to create a kind of climate change group are very positive things. With regard to setting standards in North America on f

Foreign Affairs committee  I would just say that I think that the current government shift with the integration of CIDA into the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade was a very sound one. As we link our development objectives to our business objectives, keep in mind that Mexico is the thir

Foreign Affairs committee  Just to say that, as you're aware, as Mr. Dade described, there are issues with the Mexican police that the Mexican authorities are well aware of about the cooperation that we would have between, say, the RCMP, the FBI, CSIS, the CIA, and other intelligence agencies in Canada and

Foreign Affairs committee  Sir, I'll give you a good example. In terms of autos, the Americans and the Japanese are negotiating auto standards. As Michael Wilson has stated, and as Carlo Dade states, autos are a North American product. There's no such thing as a U.S.-made car or a Canada-made car or a Mex

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm just going to underline something that Mike Wilson underlined, which I also mentioned in my remarks, and that is the importance of contact, peer-to-peer relations between members of Parliament, members of Congress, and members of the Mexican Congress, the work that you can do

International Trade committee  I am.