Thank you for the question.
The CETA would be the first of Canada's international trade treaties to include binding commitments on municipal governments. Until the recent Buy American deal, which included some provincial procurement under the WTO agreement on government procurement, that was also true of provincial governments.
As you state, one of the most contentious parts of the CETA text--which is standard in the WTO agreement on government procurement and in the NAFTA procurement chapter, but these have not applied at the local level and until recently at the provincial government level--is a prohibition of what are called offsets. And offsets are simply defined as any local development condition.
When SNC-Lavalin and other Canadian corporations are active around the world--and the same is true of European corporations here--they are able to compete on contracts, but public entities will negotiate with them for local benefits. They will look, as governments should, at local employment, local training, taxes paid in the local economy, and they will make determinations of best value based on that. To me, that is a responsible use of taxpayers' money. It's completely consistent with open tendering processes. The criteria are spelled out clearly in advance, weighted, and the best bid wins. We do apply local development criteria.