I have comments on a couple of things you mentioned.
First, on the municipal side of things, I agree. I've seen those FCM statements. But I would argue that the verdict is still out on whether all of the conditions have been met, specifically that fourth condition around the space to apply domestic preferences on strategic sectors, for example, like transit and hydro. It would be great if those have been carved out. We just don't know yet because we don't have that final agreement. I think the verdict is still out.
Certainly, cities like Toronto remain concerned. Just a few weeks ago, and I think it was unanimous, they said they would like a consultation from the province on what's been agreed to. They want some kind of vote or some kind of say on whether they are going to be bound by the deal.
In B.C., the UBCM, the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, takes a very different position from what the FCM does. The UBCM has decided that it would like to be carved out of these procurement rules entirely. I think that's partly based on the experience they've had under the agreement with Alberta, the TILMA, where municipalities have had some issues that are quite similar around the procurement rules in that agreement.
On the scope and size of the deal, I'm just repeating what Mr. McBane was saying about how of course we don't oppose every aspect of this. In fact, if we were able to wrangle a great trade deal out of the European Union on tariffs for our fisheries and for our agricultural export sectors, I think that would be great. It's the inability of this committee or Parliament to pull out those parts that are found, after consideration, to be not in the best interests of Canadians that we're worried about. That's what we're opposed to. We think we should be able to say yes to some parts of it and no to others. It absolutely involves a lot more public discussion than is possible in the current way that negotiations are concluded.
Finally, on the extent and scope of the deal, I don't think it's actually as big a deal as we've been told. In terms of the benefits, they're potentially going to be significant for some export sectors. Of course, we hear about beef and pork; we don't know yet what kind of cuts are going to be let into the European Union.
Apart from that, we're not looking here at a massive boost to trade from this deal, even by the government's own numbers, and subsequent studies have said that those numbers are actually quite exaggerated. There are a lot of concessions we seem to be making for very few gains here, I would argue.