Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'd like to thank our witnesses for being here today.
Mr. Stewart-Patterson, you said that a failure to ratify the Canada-EFTA agreement would send a profoundly negative signal about Canada's intent in pursuing closer ties with Europe. Personally, I agree with that.
I'm struck by the fact that we've been in negotiations with our partners for just over ten years now. To me, it feels somewhat like the never-ending story—and I'm not sure if that's our fault at the political level.
I really ask our colleagues around this table, is that our fault at the political level? I underscore this twice, because our European partners have approved this deal. We've been in negotiations for ten-plus years. For all of us who care about this country and about the Canadians who make up this country, I would like to ask the opinion of our witnesses, what is the impact, from a financial perspective, of our delaying approval of EFTA? What's the impact on the Canadian worker? What's the impact on Canadian business—which, ultimately, comes down to the Canadian worker—because if that's not what we're caring about when this is said and done, then why are we here? So I would respectfully ask our witnesses if they have any thoughts on the impact of delay.