Mr. Speaker, the official opposition has forgotten another instance in which the federal Conservatives really caused the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador significant harm, and that was in its use of chapter 11 under NAFTA when AbitibiBowater brought a charge against Newfoundland and Labrador for an interpretation of the contract under which it had been doing business in the province. That contract dated from 1905. It was a 99-year lease that kept getting extended. I studied it when I was writing books about forestry policy in Canada.
Newfoundland and Labrador had every right under the contract to say that when AbitibiBowater vacated the province, the company had no right to sell off hydroelectric assets and other assets it had gained only through this quite ancient contract. The Prime Minister berated Danny Williams and paid out $130 million from the consolidated revenue fund of the people of Canada to AbitibiBowater. In other words, Newfoundland and Labrador's interests were not protected. They were gutted by the interpretation of chapter 11 of NAFTA, which brings us to the competence of this economic and trade agreement, which by the way—