Hon. Peter M. Boehm: Thank you very much, Senator Downe, for your question and your ongoing advocacy on what is clearly an important matter. I would also like to thank you for giving me the proverbial heads-up that you were going to ask the question.

Colleagues, I cannot and will not speak for the government. As you know, Parliament plays no role in negotiating free trade agreements or any other treaty for that matter. However, transparency from the government is important in these matters so Parliament can play its roles of reviewing implementation legislation and holding the government to account. Of course, the committee that I have the honour to chair has a mandate to examine treaties and international agreements. The last such study was on the bill to implement the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, or CUSMA, the new NAFTA, in 2020.

In response to your question on the agenda of the committee, over the next year, I anticipate a very busy schedule, especially after more than two years of pandemic restrictions. The committee will continue its major study on Canada’s foreign service — a fit-for-purpose examination — and elements of the foreign policy machinery within Global Affairs Canada. It will continue its comprehensive review of the provisions and operation of the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, otherwise known as the Sergei Magnitsky Law, and of the Special Economic Measures Act, a review mandated by section 16 of the Sergei Magnitsky Law five years after its entry into force. The committee will continue to regularly hold meetings on the situation in Ukraine.

Of course, there are other topics members have expressed the wish to study. The committee also had legislation referred to it just last week, this being Senator Ataullahjan’s Bill S-225, the cluster munitions investment prohibition act. There will likely be more legislation, and if history is any guide, the committee can expect parts of the 2023 budget implementation act in the spring as well.

Related to this specific issue, several members of the committee, including myself, have expressed an interest in studying the progress of existing free trade agreements, or FTAs, because while Canada is exceptionally good at negotiating FTAs, we do not do a very good job of implementing them once they are in force. As you know, on March 24 of this year, Canada and the United Kingdom launched negotiations toward a bilateral free trade agreement in order to replace the Continuity Agreement that is currently in force. I note that before this, when Global Affairs Canada held public consultations between March and April of 2021, Global Affairs Canada received 22 individual submissions and a petition by the Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners with signatures representing 1,266 people, requesting that Canada seek to secure a commitment from the United Kingdom to provide annual pension increases to U.K. state pensioners living in Canada.

In my peripheral knowledge — which is rapidly fading over the past ten years — I do know that the issue was raised by the Harper government, probably after your letter to the late Minister Flaherty. It was also raised with the United Kingdom by the Trudeau government. But to the best of my knowledge, obviously, we do not have any results.

I will not commit to any committee studies on the floor of the Senate, obviously, until we can consult with both the steering committee —