Mr. Speaker, the hon. member went off on several tangents, so it is a little difficult to know where to start. The late show tonight was to be on the foreign investment promotion and protection agreement that Canada signed with China, which is what I will attempt to answer for.
To make a quick point to begin with, the hon. member mentioned that the agreement between Canada and China is locked in for 31 years. That is patently false. If she did even a rudimentary amount of homework she would know that was not the case. It is renewable and could last for 31 years, but it is not locked in for 31 years from the beginning.
The other thing that needs to be said is that prior to 2006, when that member was in government, treaties were not brought to the House of Commons at all for 21 sitting days. They simply became the law of the land. Here is an opportunity to bring this up on opposition days and to debate this in the House of Commons, and yet neither the Liberals nor the NDP took advantage of that. If they really wanted to have fulsome debate on this issue, they had lots of chances.
The reality is that our government is committed to creating the right conditions for Canadian businesses to compete globally. Canada's foreign investment promotion and protection agreement with China, the world's second largest economy, will provide stronger protection for Canadians investing in China and create jobs and economic growth right here at home. It establishes a clear set of rules under which investments are made and investment disputes are resolved. It is no more complicated than that.
For Canadian businesses looking to set up in China, they cannot be treated less favourably than any other foreign company looking to do the same, and once an investment is made, a Canadian business cannot be treated less favourably than any other business, including Chinese businesses.
The FIPA agreement also ensures that all investment disputes are resolved under international arbitration, ensuring that adjudications are independent and fair. Canadian investors in China will no longer have to rely on the Chinese legal system to have their disputes resolved.
Finally, our agreement with China is the first bilateral investment agreement that China has signed that expressly includes language on transparency in dispute settlement proceedings. Let me be clear. It is Canada's long-standing policy that all dispute resolution should be open to the public and that the submissions made by the parties be available to the public. Under the agreement, any decision emanating from dispute resolution would be made public.
Despite the fearmongering of the anti-trade critics, the agreement does not impair Canada's ability to regulate and legislate in such areas as the environment, culture, safety, health and conservation. Furthermore, restrictions in the agreement will preserve Canada's current ability to review foreign investments under the Investment Canada Act to ensure that they provide a net benefit to Canadians and that our national security is not compromised.
In short, the Canada-China foreign investment promotion and protection agreement is similar to the 24 other investment treaties that Canada has signed with key trade and investment partners. We join countries like New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Japan, who have all signed investment treaties with China on terms that are similar to or, in most cases, less favourable than those we negotiated with China.
The hon. member says she is pro-trade. She has a great opportunity, not to go out there fearmongering but to tell the truth about this treaty, which other countries are extremely jealous of. We now have rules-based investment with China on the Chinese mainland and Chinese have those same sets of rules available to them in Canada. This is no more complicated than that.
