SINT Committee Meeting
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37th PARLIAMENT, 2nd SESSION
Subcommittee on International Trade, Trade Disputes and Investment of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade
EVIDENCE
CONTENTS
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
| ¹ | 1530 |
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The Clerk of the Committee |
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Mr. Alan Tonks (York South—Weston, Lib.) |
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The Clerk |
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Mr. Rick Borotsik (Brandon—Souris, PC) |
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Mr. Bob Speller (Haldimand—Norfolk—Brant, Lib.) |
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The Clerk |
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Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg—Transcona, NDP) |
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Mr. Rick Borotsik |
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The Clerk |
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Mr. Alan Tonks |
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The Clerk |
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Mr. Bob Speller |
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The Clerk |
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Mr. Rick Borotsik |
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Mr. Bob Speller |
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Mr. Rick Borotsik |
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Mr. Bob Speller |
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The Clerk |
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Mr. Raymond Simard (Saint Boniface, Lib.) |
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The Clerk |
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Mr. Bob Speller |
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The Clerk |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
| ¹ | 1535 |
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Mr. Rick Borotsik |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. Bill Blaikie |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. Bill Blaikie |
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Mr. Bernard Bigras (Rosemont—Petite-Patrie) |
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Mr. Bill Blaikie |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. Charlie Penson (Peace River, Canadian Alliance) |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. Charlie Penson |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. Bernard Bigras |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. Bob Speller |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. Bob Speller |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. Bob Speller |
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Mr. Bill Blaikie |
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Mr. Bob Speller |
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Mr. John Duncan (Vancouver Island North, Canadian Alliance) |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. John Duncan |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. John Duncan |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. John Duncan |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. John Duncan |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
| ¹ | 1540 |
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Mr. Bernard Bigras |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. John Duncan |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. John Duncan |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. John Duncan |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
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Mr. John Duncan |
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The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard) |
CANADA
Subcommittee on International Trade, Trade Disputes and Investment of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade |
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EVIDENCE
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]
¹ 
(1530)
[English]
The Clerk of the Committee: Honourable members, I see a quorum. Our first order of business is the election of the chair. I am ready to take motions to that effect.
Mr. Tonks.
Mr. Alan Tonks (York South—Weston, Lib.): I nominate Mr. Mark Eyking for chair.
The Clerk: Mr. Tonks has nominated Mr. Eyking as chair of the committee. Are there any other nominations?
Mr. Rick Borotsik (Brandon—Souris, PC): I'll nominate Bob Speller.
Are you going to decline the nomination?
Mr. Bob Speller (Haldimand—Norfolk—Brant, Lib.): I'm going to decline.
The Clerk: There are no other nominations?
Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg—Transcona, NDP): Is the nominee here?
Mr. Rick Borotsik: No, he's not here.
The Clerk: He can be elected in absentia. So I declare Mr. Eyking the chair of the subcommittee in absentia.
Mr. Alan Tonks: Thank you.
An hon. member: That's more of a railroad than our process.
The Clerk: We'll now proceed to the election of the vice-chair.
Mr. Speller.
Mr. Bob Speller: I nominate Raymond Simard vice-chair on this side.
The Clerk: Mr. Simard has been nominated vice-chair.
Mr. Rick Borotsik: I nominate Bob Speller.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. Bob Speller: We were all vice-chairs last time.
Mr. Rick Borotsik: Okay, there you go. I can nominate you. Are you going to accept the nomination?
Mr. Bob Speller: Be quiet. This is on the Liberal side.
The Clerk: Are there any other nominations? Mr. Simard has been elected vice-chair on the government side.
Now we'll proceed to the election of the vice-chair on the opposition side.
Monsieur Simard.
[Translation]
Mr. Raymond Simard (Saint Boniface, Lib.): I nominate Stéphane Bergeron.
The Clerk: It is moved that Mr. Stéphane Bergeron be elected vice-president of the subcommittee.
Are there any other nominations?
Mr. Speller.
[English]
Mr. Bob Speller: Then there has to be one for the official opposition also. We always had one for everyone.
The Clerk: No, not the last time. Mr. Bergeron was the only vice-chair. There's only one.
There are no other nominations, so I declare Mr. Stéphane Bergeron elected vice-chair.
At the moment we don't have an acting chair, so you can elect somebody to take over for the vice-chair.
The vice-chair can sit over here. You still have to accept that one of the vice-chairs sit up here.
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): Thank you for your support of me as vice-chair on the government side. I guess I'm the only person here who has been elected today.
There's no further order of business, but there is a report that we'd like to submit to Parliament very soon. We have no idea how soon we're going to be leaving Ottawa, so I would suggest that in maybe two or three meetings we could probably get this report in before we leave. I think it's critical after all the time, effort, and expense that has been put into this committee.
I know, for instance, my colleague Mr. Duncan has been very involved, and he wants to continue contributing to the study.
We normally sit on Wednesday afternoons. Do we continue to do that?
¹ (1535)
Mr. Rick Borotsik: I think we should sit five days a week. We have to get this report done.
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): Mr. Blaikie.
Mr. Bill Blaikie: You're referring to the report, which we've had a copy of, but it may be difficult to proceed to finalize the report when members of the subcommittee are part of the fuller committee that's travelling.
When are they expected back?
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): I believe they're back at the end of this week. So they will be here next Wednesday.
Mr. Bill Blaikie: For what it's worth, I don't want to assume what the members of the Bloc are going to say, but I'm sure Monsieur Bergeron would like to be here when we're completing that.
I'll be here next week anyway.
[Translation]
Mr. Bernard Bigras (Rosemont—Petite-Patrie): I think that it would be more—
[English]
Mr. Bill Blaikie: I've already written my minority report.
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): Mr. Penson.
Mr. Charlie Penson (Peace River, Canadian Alliance): For the benefit of the new members of the subcommittee, there will be copies circulated to us as well.
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): Oh, you hadn't had a copy of the draft report.
Mr. Charlie Penson: The new members on the committee.
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): Oh, I see.
Did everybody else here get a copy? Mr. Blaikie, you got one. Okay. We'll make sure everybody has a copy.
Hopefully we'll resume next Wednesday.
[Translation]
Mr. Bigras, do you have any questions?
Mr. Bernard Bigras: No, that's all right.
[English]
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): So we'll resume next Wednesday and address the report.
If you have any questions, comments, or recommendations, or any information you may have, you might want to forward them to Michael, our researcher here.
Mr. Bob Speller: I have a point on future business.
I think it's critical, given what's going on at the WTO, that we take some time to get some first-hand knowledge from the department as to where they feel the negotiations are going. I would assume there would be general agreement to move in that direction fairly quickly.
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): Are you saying we should call in witnesses?
Mr. Bob Speller: Call in witnesses on the WTO negotiations, as to where they're standing at now, and--
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): Maybe what we should do is put it on the agenda for early next week and talk about that with the other members here. It would probably be a good idea to wait until the other members are here.
That's it?
Mr. Bob Speller: It's just that it takes a while to get witnesses, and I'm worried about the time.
Mr. Bill Blaikie: We have only two weeks anyway. We're not going to hear any witnesses.
Mr. Bob Speller: But at least if we could get a day in....
Mr. John Duncan (Vancouver Island North, Canadian Alliance): I had a request from the Ministry of Education, the deputy minister--
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): Yes, from B.C.
Mr. John Duncan: He's talking about formal schooling. To finalize this report, I think his input would be very worthwhile, because it's one area we heard about everywhere we went in Asia, and yet the report doesn't reflect a strong component at all on the education front. We heard many things as individuals sitting around the tables, but never as a group, so I think he can put it all together for us.
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): We could do it by teleconference. That would be fine.
Mr. John Duncan: We all seem to be hung up in committee on actually seeing the other person, but he's a pretty sophisticated guy, and I don't see why we couldn't do it on a telephone conference call.
He's the Deputy Minister of Education in British Columbia.
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): We could do it Wednesday, I guess, because if we're going to be discussing the report, you'd like to see that done before, right?
Mr. John Duncan: Yes, or in conjunction.
I realize the importance of getting along with the report, but I think we're underestimating things if we think we can get it done in two Wednesdays. If we start on a Wednesday, we should keep going on it--
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): I agree with that.
Mr. John Duncan: --on Thursday and maybe even Friday.
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): I'm just concerned that if we go past a certain time, if it doesn't get done before the spring, this thing will be wasted and we'll be starting over. It will be gone.
So I'm really concerned that, if we have to, we have some special meetings to get it done within the next couple of weeks.
Monsieur Bigras.
¹ (1540)
[Translation]
Mr. Bernard Bigras: Mr. Chairman, I think that you were on the right track earlier and that it would be important not to move in another direction. Since a fair number of committee members are absent, I feel it would be a good idea to postpone this discussion till Wednesday. You were on the right track before, and I think that you should not stray from it.
[English]
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): Are you okay with that, John, that we wait until next Wednesday, until the regular members are here and we can discuss those things?
They were aware of that as well, so it's probably a good idea to bring it bring back Wednesday and discuss all these issues.
Mr. John Duncan: Can you notify...?
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): Yes, we can still notify the witness.
Mr. John Duncan: You'll notify the witness and schedule going through the report?
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): Yes.
Mr. John Duncan: They're not going to complain about that, so what else is there? What are we actually deferring? We're not deferring a decision to do that.
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): There's a vote.
Why don't we wait until next Wednesday, until the regular members are here? We'll discuss your item and move into the report as well.
Mr. John Duncan: Are you talking about Wednesday afternoon?
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Raymond Simard): Yes, that's Wednesday afternoon, at the regular meeting. Is that okay?
Thank you.
The meeting is adjourned.