Mr. Chair, in response to that very good question I'd like to say that our position is that the Canadian private sector and the international private sector have a right to choose the vehicle. The Retail Council of Canada has done a very good analysis of the differences between the two organizations we're talking about.
I wanted to point out that in terms of the alliance, for example, this is a fast-moving situation, as we've just received word in the past couple of days that it has just amended its members' agreement to include the following statement, which speaks to the example of the 11-year-old girl you mentioned. It's short and reads as follows:
Further, Alliance Members shall require that the Factories they work with respect the right of a worker to refuse work if he/she has a reasonable justification to believe that a safety situation presents an imminent and serious danger to his/her life....
This is an improvement on the alliance's earlier members' agreement. Some prominent international companies have elected to join either of these two organizations. It is a very complex and large problem, and in our view it's useful to have two means of attacking the problem.
It's an extremely corrupt environment. A lot of what we're seeing in Bangladesh is related to a high degree of corruption. There are people on the take in terms of inspections. There are many members of the Bangladesh Parliament who own factories, for example, and there's a conflict of interest at the political level, which you may be aware of.
In our view, we leave it to the private sector. I think one of our companies, Loblaws, has decided to go the route of the accord, and you'll be hearing from them in more detail.