CIF visits Parliament Hill to meet with Canada India Interparliamentary Friendship Group

The Executive of Canada India Foundation had a fruitful visit to Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 15, 2011 to meet with members of the Canada India Interparliamentary Friendship Group.

The 1st  session of Canada’s 41^st Parliament opened on June 2, 2011, following elections held on May 2, which saw changes in the federal political landscape of the country, with the Conservative Party securing an majority of electoral seats, after two consecutive minority governments and the New Democratic Party surprising all political observers by becoming the official Opposition Party, overtaking the Liberal Party.

It was a clear sign of the importance that all political parties attached to relations with India that, within 2 weeks of the opening of the parliament, 20 members of the all-party Canada India Interparliamentary Friendship Group met with executives of Canada India Foundation over lunch in the Parliamentary Dining Room on June 16, to reconnect and identify priority areas for the two groups to work together in furthering Canada-India relations. Credit for facilitating the meeting and securing the participation of the parliamentarians  in such a short time goes to MP Patrick Brown, Member of Parliament for Barrie and Chair of the GTA Caucus. In addition to Minister  John Baird, Minister for Foreign Affairs who came in to commend the two groups for their initiative, and Minister Tony Clement, President of the Treasury Board, who  also came by to observe the discussions, other participants included Ministers Tim Uppal and Bal Gosal, the first Conservative  Party ministers in the federal government from the Indo-Canadian community, Senator Con DiNino, Senator David Smith, Senator Vim Kochhar, Parliamentary Assistant to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deepak Obhrai, other Indo-Canadian MP’s Devinder Shory, Parm Gill and Jinny Sims, GTA MP’s Eve Adams, Bob Dechert , NDP MP from Sudbury Glenn Thibeault and other MP’s representing regions across Canada. Canada India Foundation was represented by its Chair Ramesh Chotai, National Convenor Aditya Jha, Regional Convenor Deepak Ruparell and Members of the Board of Governors Vasu Chanchlani, Dr. V.I. Lakshmanan, Vikram Khurana, Bhim Asdhir, Laj Prasher and Dr. Atul Tolia, and Executive Director Kalyan Sundaram.

Welcoming the Ministers, MP’s, Senators and CIF Members, MP Patrick Brown reiterated the important role Canada India Foundation has played since its inception to advance the India file. He said that the Friendship Group continues to grow in membership and he was looking forward to concrete results to be achieved by the group in the current Parliament. He acknowledged the need for the Friendship Group to be upgraded to Committee status and pointed out that a similar committee exists for China. However, he cautioned that the process to get Committee status for the group might take time and should not deter the group from pushing for progress in important Canada India initiatives. Welcoming the new Members of Parliament to the Friendship Group, along with continuing members of the group, CIF’s Ramesh Chotai and  Aditya Jha tabled some of the priority Canada-India initiatives, including the Free Trade Agreement, Civil Nuclear opportunities, growth in Investor Class immigration, creation of a mirror group in India made up of Indian parliamentarians  and growing Canada’s brand identity in India and promised full support of CIF towards these objectives. V.I. Lakshmanan said that CIF would continue its highly successful theme based forums on business opportunities (Energy – 2009, Mining – 2010) with Infrastructure and Agriculture as likely topics for future forums.

Some of the CIF members accepted an invitation to observe the Question Period before concluding a very productive visit to Ottawa, which is likely to be the first of several periodic meetings between Canada India Foundation and Canada India Interparliamentary friendship Group, charting Canada-India ties.