EVIDENCE Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development NUMBER 026 3rd SESSION 40th PARLIAMENT Tuesday, October 5, 2010 Le mardi 5 octobre 2010 Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development CANADA [Recorded by Electronic Apparatus] EVIDENCE October 5, 2010 Committee Edited Evidence * Table of Contents * Number 026 (Official Version) Official Report * Table of Contents * Number 026 (Official Version) Témoignages * Table des matières * Numéro 026 (Version officielle) 26 05 10 2010 2010/10/05 15:25:00 House of Commons Comité permanent des affaires étrangères et du développement international Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development FAAE Chair Mr.

Dean Allison 40 3 (1530) [ English ] The Clerk of the Committee (Mrs. Carmen DePape) : Members of the committee, I see a quorum. We can now proceed with the election of the chair. I am ready to receive motions to that effect. [ Translation ] Mr. Bernard Patry (Pierrefonds—Dollard, Lib.) : I would like to nominate Mr. Allison. [ English ] The Clerk : It has been moved by Dr. Patry that Mr. Allison be elected as chair of the committee. Are there further motions? Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion? (Motion agreed to) The Clerk: I declare the motion carried and Mr.

Allison elected chair of the committee. Before inviting him to come forward, if the committee wishes, we will now proceed to the election of the vice-chairs. Mr. Goldring. Mr. Peter Goldring (Edmonton East, CPC) : I wish to nominate Dr. Patry for vice-chair. The Clerk : It has been moved by Mr. Goldring that Dr. Patry be elected first vice-chair of the committee. Are there further nominations? (Motion agreed to) The Clerk: I declare the motion carried and Dr. Patry duly elected as first vice-chair of the committee. [ Translation ] I am now ready to receive nominations for the position of second vice-chair.

Yes, Ms. Deschamps, the floor is yours. Ms. Johanne Deschamps (Laurentides—Labelle, BQ) : I would like to nominate Mr. Jean Dorion. The Clerk : Okay. Are there any further motions? Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion? (Motion agreed to) The Clerk: I declare the motion carried and Mr. Dorion duly elected as second vice-chair of the committee. I now invite Mr. Allison to take the chair. [ English ] Some hon. members: Hear, hear! The Chair (Mr. Dean Allison (Niagara West—Glanbrook, CPC)) : I want to seek direction from the committee on what we want to do.

Madam Deschamps was talking about the possibility of having a women's group from Sudan here, which I think we're all aware of. We were thinking of possibly having them come on Thursday, since we didn't have any other orders of business. Would it be okay to invite them for Thursday? Okay, so we'll do that now. We have a couple of options. We can either have a steering committee meeting on Thursday, or at another time. We can meet after this meeting for a bit.

(1535) Mr. Bernard Patry : Can we have it before Thursday or in the morning? The Chair : We can do it right now if you like. Mr. Bernard Patry : But I don't have my papers. I didn't know. The Chair : We can do whatever we want. The other option is to meet in the morning on Thursday. I'll put that to you. Madam Deschamps is next, and then Mr. Dewar. [ Translation ] Ms. Johanne Deschamps : Mr. Chair, you have answered my question. Given that Mr. Dorion is not here today and that he will be on the steering committee, I would like him to have a little more time to... [ English ] Mr.

Bernard Patry : We can discuss it between our groups. There's no doubt about what we'd like to do. It's not a big expansion of the study--but to meet some of the people. We can discuss it if we have 15 or 20 minutes. The Chair : So why don't I put the question? We can do a steering meeting before or after the meeting. We can meet with the women of Sudan. We can meet either before or after that in the same timeframe. We could maybe meet from 3:30 to 4:30, and then 4:30...or vice versa. I'm taking names, so go ahead, Jim. Hon. Jim Abbott (Kootenay—Columbia, CPC) : My suggestion is that we meet after.

You or the clerk will have to arrange for some simultaneous translation if we meet before. If we meet after the meeting we've agreed to, then the translation will all be here. The Chair : So you suggest it be either the hour before or the hour after--either 3:30 or 4:30. Hon. Jim Abbott : Yes, as opposed to a separate morning. The Chair : That makes sense, and I think we can set it up. Paul. Mr. Paul Dewar (Ottawa Centre, NDP) : Just to complicate matters, I'm not going to be here on Thursday at that time, but I am available Thursday morning. There's a huge event here that Mr.

Baird and others from the Ottawa area will be attending. It's the unveiling of the Chinese gates, which is a massive event. I just can't be here. The Chair : So you're not going to be here for our meeting on Thursday at all? Mr. Paul Dewar : No. I am available in the morning, and now. The Chair : So we'll look at trying to do it in the morning, and we can go from there. Is there any other business or discussion? Madam Deschamps. [ Translation ] Ms. Johanne Deschamps : Perhaps Ms. DePape could tell us about Thursday's meeting.

Will this meeting with the witness take place as part of a formal meeting of the committee? [ English ] The Chair : Correct. I'm going to

schedule it for one hour, and if we need to go overtime because people have questions we can do that. Paul, will you be okay if we have the subcommittee on the Thursday morning? Then we can take the recommendations back and maybe talk about an agenda after the meeting for the second hour from 4:30 on. Thank you very much. Mr. Bernard Patry : Can we talk about what we are going to do the week after, when we come back? The Chair : Well, hopefully we'll get a consensus with all in the morning, and then we can bring it back. [ Translation ] Ms.

Johanne Deschamps : Do you have an idea of when on Thursday morning the steering committee meeting will be held? [ English ] The Chair : How about nine to ten, before House duty? Does that work for people? [ Translation ] Ms. Johanne Deschamps : That is fine. [ English ] The Chair : And we'll try to do it in Centre Block, if that's all right. Is there anything else? Thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned.