It's almost to the point where what the government is doing is actually better done by many of the industry associations that participated in the round tables. In some ways I feel that it is a bit of an abdication of the government's rightful role, to create a centre of excellence, which is now going to be housed in an industry association anyhow, to have a counsellor to advise companies. These are things that often better left to the industry itself.
What we really want to see Bill C-300 introduce is a fair process whereby Export Development Canada, CPP, and the foreign service can, in a consistent manner, apply human rights standards and corporate social responsibility expectations when they offer assistance to our companies. I think the strength of the bill, in having a broad and consistent across-the-board approach, is just that: Canadian companies, and other companies, quite frankly, that are seeking assistance from the Canadian government will know what they're dealing with, and it won't be left to different policies or even conflicting policies with different state agencies. The strength of the bill is really in having a broad approach, a consistent approach, across these different jurisdictions.
If we look at environmental policy, clearly the industry has come a long way on the environmental front, and it has been in part not just by leaving things strictly to voluntary implementation. It has been about having consequences and actually attaching some of those environmental expectations to the public dollars that companies need to pursue projects. That is an important lever that the government is not currently using and that Bill C-300 allows us an opportunity to leverage.