It cannot be handled within the institutional context of NAFTA, although I would argue that there are grounds for doing so, because this is federal legislation imposing federal conditions on how federal money is being spent. You could argue that this should be tied to the federal procurement arrangements under NAFTA. We're seeing that the American government is open to a proposal coming from Canada to negotiate some form of a procurement agreement that goes beyond the existing agreement under NAFTA. I think we should be grabbing that opportunity.
I would like to clarify our position on buy Canadian. We've never advocated a total buy Canadian restriction. I think it makes sense for us to look at local preferences and local content provisions, as most other countries do. State and local governments in the United States have done this for many years. What I think is important about the Halton Hills resolution is that it brings reciprocity into the market access agreement. You can read this both ways. In its fundamental form, if Americans restrict access for Canadian suppliers in the United States, we are prepared to restrict here. However, you could also see it as an open market resolution. If you allow free market access into state local procurement markets in the United States, we're going to do that here too. I think there's widespread agreement among municipalities that the Canadian government should be using this as a tool for negotiating some form of new procurement arrangement with the United States, at least federal to federal, where both federal governments would agree not to impose restrictions on how federal money is being spent at state and local levels.