Citizenship and Immigration committee  —because in our process-driven immigration refugee system, getting these details right is essential. I would remind the committee that the head of the UN refugee agency in Canada says the changes that are proposed are “no cause for alarm”. The other step—and this is my final po

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Chair, for inviting me here today. Let me begin by saying how delighted I am that the government has begun to take seriously the problem of the integrity of the border, particularly with respect to illegal or, if you prefer, irregular border crossers. Unfortunately,

International Trade committee  Thank you. I think it is imperative that we have a rules-based approach to trade with the United States that's embodied in the free trade agreement. If you're going to have rules that govern the relationship between Canada and the United States, you must have someone entitled to

International Trade committee  I guess I'm a little confused by what's being argued before the committee. It's pretty clear, to me at any rate, that the NAFTA agreement intends to protect investors against precisely the kind of action we saw by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. One of the complaint

International Trade committee  I understand that. I wasn't suggesting that you were.

International Trade committee  I spent some time in my remarks talking about why it's important to provide this kind of protection to investors because of the importance of upfront investments and long payback periods. We have to create certainty for investors so they can make that kind of investment. Canada

International Trade committee  Just on--

International Trade committee  Just very quickly, Mr. Chairman, I've heard all the comments about the inadequacies of the arbitration process. I can understand and agree with many of the reservations we have about it. The point is that there are only two alternatives if we're unhappy with the arbitration pro

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm the managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, which is a public policy think tank based in Halifax. As I understand it, the committee is charged with studying a matter of great national importance that falls into two parts: first, $130 mil