I move:
That the Standing Committee on International Trade recommend that Canada declare a reservation from Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for all measures concerning water, including water in its natural state and as a public trust and that this be reported to the House.
Mr. Chair, that's my motion, and I would like to take a few minutes to talk about it.
First of all, the committee has already recognized the importance of declaring a reservation in terms of water. That was done in 2007, when the Bloc Québécois introduced a motion before the committee. The committee then passed the motion and the committee's report was sent to the House of Commons. And, Mr. Chair, as you well know, the House of Commons unanimously passed the Bloc Québécois motion. So, this committee has already said in the past that it was important to declare a reservation from chapter 11, for all measures concerning water.
Given the committee's history and the fact that on June 4, 2007, we had a clear vote from the House of Commons, with Liberals, Bloc, and NDP voting in favour of the motion that came out of the committee report from the international trade committee in this regard, I am hoping we can get unanimous support for the motion today.
I'm not going to take too much time, but I think it's important to bring forward some of the arguments. All committee members have heard some of the comments from the AbitibiBowater hearings a few weeks ago. The witnesses were very clear in raising the importance of this issue.
I want to take the time to read a speech by Navdeep Bains, who is the member for Mississauga—Brampton South. He was the Liberal trade critic at the time. He spoke in the House of Commons on Thursday, May 31, 2007. This is what he said about the very same motion that was adopted by the committee in 2007. He said that he was supporting it. The Liberal Party, as you know, did support the motion. He said the following:
“Whereas Canada's water resources must be protected;
“Whereas a simple agreement by exchange of letters among the governments of Canada, the United States and Mexico specifying that water is not covered by NAFTA must be respected by international tribunals as if it were an integral part of NAFTA;”
That is very straightforward. It is not complicated. This report really emerged out of a discussion that we had with respect to the security-prosperity partnership.
We had multiple meetings on that subject matter where we discussed this initiative, and the initiative Mr. Bains raised was brought forth in 2005 by the former prime minister, the former member for LaSalle—Émard.
Mr. Bains then went on to talk about a particular committee witness who had spoken to this issue--