moved for leave to introduce Bill C-435, An Act to favour Canadian procurements.
Mr. Speaker, as we know, we have seen a massive loss of jobs of Canadians over the past 20 years, good jobs that are being replaced by lower minimum wage jobs. We have also seen a reduction in family income over the last 20 years due, in large part, to bad trade policy.
What the NDP is presenting today, and what I am presenting, is a made-in-Canada procurement act that would ensure that taxpayer money that is being spent would actually benefit Canadian workers and Canadian jobs.
Smart governments protect jobs.
As we well know, and the Conservatives obviously do not, around the world most industrialized economies are putting in strategies to protect and support their jobs, whether it is the Jones act in the United States or the most recent infrastructure investment moneys in the United States as well. We have seen smart governments moving to protect jobs.
This bill would give Canada negotiating power to allow for Canadian exemptions on things like the made-in-America act. In other words, Canadian jobs would benefit both from a Canadian procurement policy and from the results of the discussions that we would have.
As a final point, this is NAFTA and WTO compliant. This is smart trade policy. What we have seen is a softwood sellout. We are putting forward--
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)