Mr. David Tilson, MP:

Thank you, Chairman. It is a pleasure to be here. We have had some interesting meetings thus far. The Chairman has pretty well summarised why we are here. We met some of the members' colleagues in Strasbourg. Our delegation is two members shy as they have returned to Canada. As the members may or may not know, Canada is an official observer at the Council of Europe and we have had an opportunity to attend it and have had the privilege of participating in some of the debates and listening to some of the issues raised. We are interested in how those issues affect Canada and Canadian policies, and many of our issues are similar. We have gone to Strasbourg for all four sessions of the Council of the Europe and have been fairly active in participating in the Council and in the committees.

Our delegation is called the Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association. It is an association made up of members of parliament and members of the Canadian Senate. We are an all-party group; we are not only from one party. All parties are represented here today and, naturally, as with groups here, we differ on some issues and agree on others. The committee may find some of those differences but we are certainly impressed with what we have seen in Ireland so far and look forward to hearing some of the initiatives Ireland may take when it takes over the EU Presidency on 1 January next year.

Our issues are several-fold. One is the economic problems facing Europe. Those problems exist everywhere. Canada has had those problems, although not as severely as Europe or Ireland. Unemployment is one of them. Many young Irish people are coming to Canada because there are no jobs here, and we are pleased they are doing that. In the case of many people in Canada, their ancestors date back to the Famine, as do mine, and, therefore, we all have a connection with Ireland.

We are interested in the economy and it is a case of how Europe goes, so will Canada go. We are interested in the economy in the United States. Our trade is pretty high with Europe and the Americans. We are interested in a trade agreement, called the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, that is being negotiated, and we are hopeful the Irish, during their Presidency, will encourage its passing. We are at the stage now where it will be on the edge of going to the different member states for votes and we hope it will be passed. We believe the agreement will be good for Europe and for Canada.

We have several concerns. One of the reasons Canada's economy is not, I would say, so much booming but is doing better than other economies is our oil business. We are concerned about the fuel directive that surfaced last spring. It is being negotiated again and we hope that issue will be resolved. We believe our oil is as good as any country's that is being used in Europe. We attend the Arctic conferences. A number of Arctic conferences are held in different countries. I do not believe Ireland is part of that. We are interested in global warming and in the issues of the Arctic, which number many.

The members may have some questions for us and I expect we will have some questions for the members. I thank the Vice Chairman very much for allowing us to come to this committee.