I think it's very difficult to argue that it serves a useful purpose. I just don't think the evidence is there. When you look at the studies the World Bank has carried out of whether the mechanism even works, you have to have questions about it.
When we had a free trade agreement with the United States in 1988, we had an investment chapter, but we didn't have investor-state dispute resolution. So there's a basic question about whether you need the mechanism, and I think the evidence is that it has not served Canada well and certainly hasn't served Canadian investors. If you wanted to cooper it up, there are ways to do that, exhausting local remedies. There are a number of technical changes that you would make to the regime to make it more transparent, to make it possible for people to participate in the process.
We've intervened in disputes. I'm now intervening in the Merrill & Ring case, but I don't get to see the evidence. So it confounds any notion of fairness that certainly would apply to labour arbitrations or proceedings before Canadian courts.
It's a system that wasn't created to resolve public disputes. I don't think it's the appropriate forum for that type of argument or legal claim. It could be fixed up, but I think you really have to answer the question first as to whether or not it's serving a valid purpose.