Mr. Minister, thank you for that. I beg to differ. I think the more the information comes out about this agreement, the more people seem to be concerned.
Now, a senior official with the Quebec Ministry of Economic Development estimated the value of unallocated funds of these seven U.S. programs that we supposedly had access to at $1.3 billion, and the value of the contracts that we're giving up, opening up to American businesses, are estimated at more than $25 billion, and some estimates range even higher.
So my question to you is very specific. If you don't have the figures to share with us, do you have any idea about how many jobs will be lost in Canada as a result of this? If we are having access to $1 billion and giving up $25 billion, there are very clearly concerns about what the government is giving up.
My related question is this. How many programs of the seven actually had full commitments already made--in other words, all the contracts were signed and no money was available except for re-tendering? How many of the seven were in that position?