We have gone down this road now, so to that amendment, I'm trying to remove the funding component to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
However, since we talked about employment numbers, you would know that CANSIM table 282-0011 shows that job numbers are pretty much the same as they were all the way back in about June or July of last year, because there was a drop and it came back up. I'd be really careful, then, about using whatever employment numbers you want, because I can use StatsCan numbers to demonstrate to you that half of the drop in the unemployment rate is due to workforce participation dropping. There are fewer people looking for work. People are dropping out of the workforce because of all the tax hikes. It's not worth looking for work. That's not me; that's StatsCan. Just go look at the data. It's right there.
To the amendment, it's been said that this isn't about pipeline infrastructure projects in Asia. It is about them, though, because there are 21 projects already on the books. The day the government announced it was going to join was the day the TANAP Azerbaijan project was approved. It was the exact same day, so how could you not know?
The witnesses said there was a human rights and environmental record review done on every single project, which means the government would have been reviewing it ahead of time before joining this project. It would have known that $375 million U.S. of taxpayers' money would be going to finance the loans being given to these pipeline projects. It has to. Inevitably it will go there. Middle-class taxpayers are going to be financing two pipeline projects overseas, and I don't see how that's fair to the widows or how that's fair to the orphans or how it's fair to taxpayers in Canada to be financing those projects.
Witnesses have also said before this committee—in error—that this is an opportunity for Canadian companies to bid and that they could bid on these projects ahead of time. I have experts from Australia and Asia saying that this is furthering China's foreign policy interests, not Canada's, and that Chinese contractors are preferred contractors when it comes to bidding on these projects, so this money very well may go to financing middle-class jobs in China and the elite who will be getting these loans. “De-risking” was the term used for what this money is going towards, but de-risking whom? Well, it's de-risking those people who are fortunate enough to have a seat at that table. We are not purchasing a seat at the table. We are not going to be a member of the board of governors or the board of directors of this bank.
We may, perhaps in the future, but we get less than a 1% voting share for this money, and I just don't see the value. I don't see the bang for your buck. Back in Alberta, we say, “Get 'er done”. I don't see us “getting 'er done” here.