Representing Canada
Although not part of the daily schedule of business, another responsibility of both Members and the House Administration is to represent our legislature, our country, our people and our system of parliamentary democracy internationally. The Speaker and Members welcome visitors to the House of Commons and participate in delegations and parliamentary conferences.
Welcoming International
Visitors
The Speakers of both the Senate and the House of Commons
build parliamentary relationships with other countries
and maintain liaison with the diplomatic community by
receiving courtesy calls from newly accredited
ambassadors to Canada and those ending their stay here.
Speaker Milliken received 45 such visits in the 2009-2010
fiscal year.
During the last year, the Parliament of Canada also
received two delegations of a more formal nature. In
April 2009, the Honourable John Hogg, President of the
Senate of Australia, led a parliamentary delegation to
Parliament. In June 2009, His Excellency Luka Bebic,
Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia, led
a delegation from his parliament to visit the
House.
Canadian Official Visits
The Speaker of the House of Commons and other Members are
regularly invited to visit other parliaments to discuss
common issues and to foster relationships. During the
2009-2010 fiscal year, the Speaker visited three
legislatures. The first was the Québec National Assembly
in April 2009. In May and September 2009, the Speaker led
official delegations to Finland and Ukraine,
respectively.
As well as leading delegations, Speaker Milliken himself
represented the House of Commons at three notable
conferences over the past year. These were the G8
Speakers' Conference in Italy in September 2009; the
Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the
Commonwealth in India in January 2010; and the Canadian
Presiding Officers Conference in Yukon in January
2010.
Hosting Conferences
Many issues of concern to Canadians transcend national
borders. By participating in international meetings,
parliamentarians are able to share ideas and their
experiences with counterparts from around the
world.
In 2009-2010, Canada hosted three such important
meetings:
The Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group (IPG) held its
50th Annual Meeting in La Malbaie, Québec, in May 2009.
There, delegates agreed to 10 resolutions on matters of
importance to both nations, such as economic recovery and
financial system stability, the shared border, the war
against terror, and our countries' joint energy and
environmental future. Recognizing that the group was
celebrating its 50th anniversary, Prime Minister Harper
and President Obama sent messages of congratulations, as
did the Speaker of each Chamber in the Canadian
Parliament, the Speaker of the U.S. House of
Representatives and the majority and minority leaders of
the U.S. Senate.
In November 2009, the Speakers of the Senate and the
House of Commons hosted the 16th Canada-Mexico
Interparliamentary Meeting (IPM) in
Saint John, New Brunswick, and Ottawa. Since 1975, the
IMP
has been one of the key mechanisms for dialogue between
the two national legislatures. While in Saint John, the
Canadian and Mexican parliamentarians drew attention to
existing and future regional economic linkages between
our countries in areas such as port alliances, energy,
agriculture and aquaculture, as well as other bilateral
trade and investment interests. The IPM also
included business sessions on the environment and clean
energy; trade, investment and the economy; regional
security; and international cooperation. More than 30
Mexican and Canadian parliamentarians took part in the
IPM. They
commented on the enormous success of the meeting, which
concluded with a final statement making 15 points.
Some 100 participants from 21 countries of the Americas
attended the Sixth Plenary Meeting of the
Interparliamentary Forum of the Americas (FIPA) in
September 2009 in Ottawa. Parliamentarians discussed and
made recommendations on issues related to the economic
and financial crisis, food security, international
migrations and human rights, gender equality and the H1N1
influenza pandemic. A number of specialists in different
fields presented their findings and shared their
expertise during the working group sessions.
His Excellency José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony. Delegations from China and Russia also attended as observers for the first time.
16th Canada-Mexico Interparliamentary Meeting (IPM)
Standing from left to right (top row):
Diputado Jaime Álvarez Cisneros, Diputado Jorge Alberto
Juraidini Rumilla, M.P. Paul Dewar & M.P. Bruce
Hyer
Standing from left to right (middle
row): Diputado Francisco Javier Salazar Sáenz,
Diputado Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, Diputado Martin Garcia
Aviles, Senator John Wallace, Diputado Ildefonso Guajardo
Villarreal, Senador Eloy Cantu Segovia, Senador Rosario
Green Macias & Senador Silvano Aureoles Conejo
Sitting from left to right: Senador Adriana Gonzalez Carrillo, Ambassador Francisco Barrio, Senador Carlos Navarrete Ruiz, Speaker Noël A. Kinsella, Senator, Speaker Peter Milliken, M.P., Senador Luis Alberto Villareal García, Senator Carolyn Stewart Olsen & Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette
Parliamentary Association
The Parliament of Canada belongs to five bilateral associations and seven multilateral associations.
Bilateral Associations
-
Canada-China Legislative Association
-
Canada-France Interparliamentary Association
-
Canada-Japan Inter-Parliamentary Group
-
Canada-United Kingdom Inter-Parliamentary
Association
- Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group
Multilateral Associations
-
Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie
- Canada-Africa Parliamentary Association
-
Canada-Europe Parliamentary Association (including
the delegation to the Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly)
-
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
-
Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas
-
Inter-Parliamentary Union
- NATO Parliamentary Association
Interparliamentary Groups
The Parliament of Canada is involved in official interparliamentary groups with Germany, Ireland, Israel and Italy. These groups promote cooperation and understanding among nations and strengthen relations between Canadian parliamentarians and their counterparts in other parliaments. Membership fees from individual parliamentarians support the groups' activities.
Sharing Procedural Knowledge with Other Legislatures
Chair Occupants, parliamentarians and House
Administration staff sometimes look to other
legislatures for guidance on how to deal with
procedural questions. To help foster the exchange of
information among legislatures, the House
Administration distributed copies of the book House
of Commons Procedure and Practice, Second Edition,
to the provincial and territorial legislatures and to
the parliaments with which Canada maintains ties. This
includes many of the countries that participate in the
interparliamentary groups and associations to which the
Parliament of Canada belongs. Feedback from other
parliaments has been uniformly positive.
The simultaneous release of both the printed and online versions of this book has made it easily accessible to all Internet users. To read it online, search for House of Commons Procedure and Practic, 2009.