Thank you, Mr. Chair.
In support of our amendment and to address some concerns that some of my colleagues across the table have raised, I want to specifically talk about five points.
First, I want to let everyone know, let Canadians know, that we, the Liberals, are willing partners in clarifying the statement made about a lot of foreign workers coming to take over Canadian jobs.
Second, I'm going to talk about the transparency that's being discussed as a result of suggesting it could be a two-step process. Step one is that we look at an internal review of unredacted documents to put members' minds at ease that there is no collusion going on. Then, while protecting many things, including investors' IPs, the government is willing to publish a redacted document.
Third, I'm going to talk about integrity. It's integrity that we need to make sure we follow and that we trust our departments are able to uphold through the procurement process. There is the potential of unintended consequences when we constantly try to open up contracts.
Fourth, I'm going to talk about accountability. That's probably where I'm going to spend a lot of time covering how we're accountable, first, to Canadians, and second, to the workers, to our partner provinces and to our investors, while holding up our end on a lot of international trade deals that we've had around free trade.
Fifth, I'll be closing with restating the facts. The fact is that there was a hiring plan submitted to the government as part of the negotiations for the incentives that the company would be receiving. The hiring plan will clarify everything. It is available regardless of whether it is redacted or unredacted, which I think is at the core of it.
These are the issues I will cover: willing partner, transparency, integrity, accountability and stating the facts.
Let me start with being a willing partner. We, as much as every member of this committee, are committed to making sure that we clarify this. Why are we interested in that? This is a success story. This, at least in the case of Windsor, would create 2,500 Canadian-owned and -operated jobs. It would create hundreds of jobs during the construction and hundreds of jobs during the implementation. We would train our Canadian workers on the technology through the knowledge transfer by the owners of the technology. We would learn, and we would make sure there would be a lot of downstream applications.
We're not trying to hide anything. We're actually jumping on the opportunity to highlight all of these. A lot of that is done, but this is a great opportunity for us to actually use the hiring plan submitted to the Government of Canada during the process of incentive negotiations and to highlight that. It will talk about the full-time jobs. It will talk about some of the so-called foreign labour, who are actually experts who would come here on a part-time basis. They would cross the border to the U.S. to do exactly the same thing in the U.S. That's how our Canadian workers would be trained.
We're going to show and to highlight how Canadian summer jobs would be created as a result of that. We're going to show how many individuals would be able to have an opportunity to work in a sector that's growing not only in Canada, but also across the world, and they would be a part of a success story. It would put Canada as number one.
We are a willing partner. We are a willing partner, however, only under certain conditions. Those conditions are when we are focused on integrity and accountability. There have been a lot of conversations around the fact that we are trying to hide things from the public, and therefore we are not being transparent. However, if we are representatives of the Canadian people in the House and on this committee, the opportunity is presented to us to conduct an internal review of unredacted documents. If the people of Canada have trusted us to be in this room—they have voted for us—I am sure they can trust our judgment while we have access to unredacted documents that will bring comfort to all the members in this House and on this committee, in terms of there being nothing to hide, aside from protecting everything—the Government of Canada, the investors and Canadian jobs.
As a next step, we're suggesting that we publish the redacted document on our site. Once again, I am trying to reassure everyone, to the best of my understanding, about what is happening. The hiring plan submitted to the Government of Canada during the process of incentive negotiation will be made public, whether it is redacted or unredacted. That will help demystify things and reassure everyone. Our commitment is to full transparency. We will bring the contract to the committee members. We're saying, “Hey, look, why don't we work together?” There is a study in INDU, the industry committee. Why don't they join us? We could join them to look at these documents. Then we'll publish the redacted document. If you're not comfortable, we can come back and have another motion. I think we're being completely transparent.
Now, let's talk about integrity, which is point number three. If we do this, we are challenging.... We are saying that our public servants don't know what they're doing. We're setting a very dangerous precedent. Every time something's getting negotiated, they're going to say, “We don't like it. We heard through the media or a social media post that this is wrong, so let's open up the process.” Who's going to come back and invest in Canada if that's what the process is going to be? It's going to be supported by a majority of the 338 members of this House. Nobody will come and invest here because, if they're trying to protect their IP in the contract, it's not going to be wise for them. That's risk. Integrity also means mitigating risk.
Accountability is the fourth point. This is where I want to talk about how we're being accountable, first and foremost, to Canadians. We are accountable to Canadians because we have to make sure they understand the facts. I'll be closing on that, again. Let me reiterate. The facts are these: There was a hiring plan submitted to the Government of Canada during the process of incentive negotiation. It will be made public. That's accountability. That's fact.
We are told taxpayers are now funding this thing and that every Canadian is accountable for one thousand dollars' worth of tax. These are incentives being provided to the organization based on performance, after the operationalization of the fact. This means 2,500 jobs are created. It means 2,500 people are working with a good salary in a leading industry. What else does it mean? It means there are downstream jobs. It means there's knowledge. It means we've secured the growth of a region that, before the initiative this government brought, had an unemployment rate of 11.2%.
We are accountable. Not only are we accountable to tell Canadians the facts, but we are also accountable to tell our taxpayers that their money is being wisely invested.
We are also accountable to our government. We are accountable to the investors who are planning to invest in Canada because Canada has once again shown leadership on clean electricity, on an extended supply chain within the EV battery plant creation, on our critical minerals strategy, etc. Investors more than ever are choosing to come to Canada. We are accountable to them.
We're accountable to Canadians. Why? We are committed as a government to putting Canada first on the map. This is another strategy. This is another investment that is putting Canada on the map. Look at the number of investments that are coming from different countries. Why? They know that we are a willing partner and a trusted partner. We have a stable economy. We have the talent. That's why they're at the table.
There's another point on accountability. We are accountable to workers. We are accountable to show them and to demonstrate to them that we are protecting their jobs, that we are creating jobs for them. We are also making sure that the downstream economies also benefit.
How are we going to show the workers? We are going to show the workers by once again sharing with them hiring plans submitted to the Government of Canada during the process of incentive negotiation.
Now, we are also accountable to the provinces. Why are we also accountable to the provinces? They have come to the table, especially Ontario. We all know how hard it is to get the Province of Ontario to come to the table on anything. They've come to the table as an equal partner. They are putting their money in. They're putting partisanship and party affiliation aside. Why? This is the first time that provinces and the government are now putting the betterment of Canada in place as their priority.
We are also accountable to the investors. We need to assure our investors, number one, that we are a sound investment. We are a jurisdiction where they can come, and they can partner with us to grow. Their money is safe. Their money is going to give them a rate of return. That comes from the top. It comes from the vision, the vision that our leadership has shown at the highest level by putting clean electricity and reduction of greenhouse gas as its primary goal. Investors are interested in investing in jurisdictions and initiatives that are putting greenhouse gas emissions reductions as a priority mandate.
They also want to be sure of their intellectual property. They also want to make sure that the terms and conditions of their contract are protected. Why? They are also competing in other regions. They are competing down south. They are competing in Europe. They are competing in Asia. That's really important. That's why we are accountable to those investors. We are also accountable to each other.
We are also accountable to other governments. We have signed so many free trade agreements. Now we have access to a market in Europe of over $2.5 billion. We have access to $1.5 billion in Asia-Pacific. We have access to another billion dollars in Asia. Those guys are relying on the terms of their agreement. It is under the terms of agreement of a free trade that we are now allowing special skills to be imported under the free trade agreement to be able to help us operationalize a plant.
These guys are experts. They come here and help us implement. They help us train individuals. The people who are going to do the maintenance on this equipment are not foreign specialists. I can assure you, they're going to make a lot more money rolling out this equipment all over the world rather than coming in and working as a maintenance operator, not that there's absolutely anything wrong with the maintenance officer.
We are accountable to other governments under our free trade agreement.
I'll close with the facts. The facts are that as part of the incentive negotiation, the organization has submitted a hiring plan to the Government of Canada, and that's included in the contract. It is going to clearly demonstrate that Canadians will benefit from 2,500 full-time employees for a long time to come.
It also says that they are going to help us during the construction phase. Why? There are special needs for that equipment. Therefore, it's not about bringing in a bricklayer and building a building, it's to make sure that the building we are building fits the need, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
I'll draw a very simple example. When you want to build a house that you want to make a home, and you want to use the latest technology, whether it's solar, whether it's geothermal, whether it's a heating pump, whether it's wind, whether it's a high-efficiency furnace, etc., you don't do it on your own. You hire an architect. The architect, on a part-time basis, comes and does the design. You validate it, and you move on. If you want your roof to have solar panels, if you want to benefit from the green energy incentives that we are rolling out, you don't do it yourself. You bring in an approved energy auditor to do that. When you want to put in a high-efficiency furnace, you go to an HVAC expert.
This is no different from making sure we have the right experts to come to Canada on a part-time basis, as part of our free trade agreement, based on a hiring plan submitted to ensure that we can have 2,500 jobs on a go-forward basis, and a lot more downstream jobs.
Therefore, I strongly suggest that the committee agree to the amendment, because the amendment shows that we are willing to work together for Canadians to make sure that the transparency, the integrity of the process, the accountability and the facts are clearly demonstrated.
Thank you.