Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome to our witnesses. I'm going to share my time with Mr. Harris.
I guess I have a statement, then a question for the board. There's a fair amount of discussion here on how we have a side agreement on labour, how we have an agreement on labour, and how we implement corporate social responsibility standards. I can't help but think....
When I was in Honduras, I went into Yamana Gold in San Andrés. There was a little town there of about 1,500 people. About 20,000 people are there now, because they're looking for jobs and opportunity at the mine. The mine's been widely criticized by NGOs and by former member of Parliament Alexa McDonough. I visited the mine site. I spoke to the workers. The people who were being most critical weren't there. They had never visited it. The people whose names were in the paper had never actually set foot into the town. So it's pretty difficult to criticize something you actually have not seen.
I think the challenge on labour protectionism—it's the same for corporate social responsibility—is the whole question of extraterritoriality here. How do you implement that? You ask for and expect Canadian companies to abide by high standards wherever they're working around the world. You expect them to respect labour. But you also have two different economies with a totally different level of sophistication. I suggest if you went back 50 years in Canada, the level of sophistication and understanding of protecting labour would not be the same as it is today.
All I'm hearing is that we're not going to accept any free trade agreement, no matter what's been signed. It doesn't matter how you can improve it, we're simply not accepting it. We'll accept the jobs they bring, we'll accept the opportunity they bring. I think it needs to be said that in third world countries and in growing economies and countries where the level of poverty is extreme by our standards, there's tremendous opportunity here. I want to put that on the record. I simply don't understand where the mindset comes from.
On that comment, to Ms. George—because you made the comment of corporate social responsibility for Canadian companies—we do have very good corporate social responsibility, especially in the extractive sector, since there have been some pretty serious questions raised about that sector around the world.
On the whole issue of extraterritoriality, for all those who are saying it's a voluntary standard, you cannot have anything beyond a voluntary standard for Canadian companies working around the world in foreign jurisdictions that, hopefully, we still respect as a nation, their ability to be an independent country and to pass their own laws and regulations. We should always look out and try to improve the standard and raise the bar. We should expect our companies to be at the forefront of that.
Would you comment on that? I know I'm cutting into Mr. Harris' time, but the whole question of extraterritoriality, I think, is one that some people want to ignore, and we cannot ignore it.