Rapport

The Canadian Section of the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas (FIPA) participated in the 18^th Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas (FIPA) in Miami, United States of America on December 18, 2008.

The Chair of the Canadian Section of FIPA, Mr. James Bezan, M.P., also Member of the Executive Committee of FIPA, the Honourable Céline Hervieux-Payette, P.C., Senator, Former President of FIPA and Ms. Danielle Labonté, Association Secretary attended the meeting.

The FIPA Executive Committee had a full agenda, which included regular business items such as the election of the corporation's officers, the approval of the budget and the presentation of activity and financial reports.  Two agenda items, which were of particular interest, were the Plenary Assembly of FIPA and the relations between FIPA and the OAS.

Mr. James Bezan, M.P., Chair of the Canadian Section of FIPA, explained that during a recent meeting of the Executive Committee of the Canadian Section of FIPA he had raised the possibility of Canada hosting the next Plenary since no host country had been identified and this despite requests being made to several countries.  He indicated that the Executive Committee of the Canadian Section of FIPA agreed to explore the possibility of hosting the Plenary in Ottawa in 2009.  Mr. Bezan then explained the approval process that needs to be followed before the Parliament of Canada could commit to hosting this event.  Mr. Bezan also requested that dates be considered for this event.  The members of the Executive Committee of the International Section of FIPA agreed that holding the event from June 21 to 24, 2009 would be most convenient.  Mr. Bezan indicated that the Canadian Section would bring this proposal forward and would provide the committee with further details as soon as he receives further information.

During the discussion on this event, the themes for the next plenary meeting were discussed and it was decided that the program will include economic and financial crisis, food crisis and migration and human rights.

The International Executive Committee discussed the status of OAS relations and possible attendance at the Summit of the Americas, which will be held in Trinidad and Tobago in April 2009.  On this subject, Mr. Bezan reported on the missions of the Canadian Section of FIPA in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados in March 2008 and at the 38^th OAS General Assembly in Colombia in June of the same year.  In both missions the delegations received favourable responses during the meetings and witnessed the interest and support for a formal recognition of FIPA and for stronger mechanisms for cooperation.

It was recommended that FIPA consider making a request to participate in an upcoming meeting of the Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG) in order to be present and possibly participate in the discussions on the Summit. The Canadian delegates recommended highlighting how FIPA can bring efficiency to the Summit process and how it could serve as an important partner in communicating its results in their respective countries.  The delegation also received ideas on how to proceed to formalize the cooperation between the two organizations. The members of the delegation concluded that a combination of two approaches would be most fruitful: first that the membership adopt a resolution to gain support to designate FIPA as the parliamentary representative of the member-countries at the OAS, and, second that it adopt a resolution to develop a Memorandum of Understanding with the OAS describing the mechanisms of cooperation.

During the meeting, Members of the FIPA Executive Committee reviewed and approved a resolution to share with H.E. Luis Alberto Rodriguez, Ambassador, National Coordinator, Secretariat for the Fifth Summit of the Americas and the Summit Implementation Review Group asking that FIPA be recognized for its work in the Americas with parliamentarians, and be allowed to become a permanent participant in OAS and Summit of the Americas meetings.  The resolution is attached (Appendix 1).

Other discussions that took place during the meeting regarded the participation of members of the Congress of the United States of America to FIPA activities and the initial meetings with COPA.  The members also discussed strategies for consolidating FIPA’s finances and diversifying its sources of funding.  Senator Hervieux-Payette accepted to be part of the working group responsible for the review of FIPA’s financial diversification strategy and approach potential contributors.

The report of the 18^th Meeting, with further details on the discussions, will be posted on FIPA’s web site (http://www.e-fipa.org/EC/ec_rep_en.htm) as soon as it becomes available.

Respectfully submitted,