Evidence of meeting #15 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ceta.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
When you say parliamentarians, what is the spectrum? In Europe it's not clear. It's even less clear than it is here in Canada sometimes. In Europe they're not necessarily all to the left and to the right. The Green Party sometimes leans as far to the left as it does to the right.
Who would be in favour of this type of agreement? There has to be somebody in favour if somebody from the European Parliament agreed to this agreement. So who would be in favour?
Research Consultant, CUPE BC
What you would call the right wing is in the majority in the Parliament right now, so the right and the Liberals would.
Liberal
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Was there any exchange of ideas, or was it just black and white?
Research Consultant, CUPE BC
They tend to have very specific interests about certain particular elements, based on the country they come from, the committees they're on at the Parliament, so—
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
There are varied opinions in Europe as well, right?
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
So my question to you is if we took out the investor-state dispute settlement, would you be in favour of the free trade agreement?
Research Consultant, CUPE BC
I'd still be concerned about local procurement and about massive increases in drug costs in Canada, and I would have a number of other concerns, but I think it would make a big improvement.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
So the major three would be the investor-state dispute settlement, pharmaceuticals, and procurement?
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Well, it doesn't matter. They're the top three.
Okay, thank you.
Mr. Corrigan, maybe I'll give you an opportunity to clarify, and I will not be as hostile as my buddy Randy over there.
You're saying that this agreement will benefit the multinationals. But then you also said that the people who lost with the NAFTA agreement were in the forestry sector, the auto sector, and the manufacturing sector. Especially in the auto sector and forestry sector, they would be multinationals, so can you reconcile the two?
Mayor, City of Burnaby
In essence, in the past in Canada, in order for multinationals to do business here, we've required them to establish jobs here. We've said that if you're going to utilize our resources, if you're going to take away our commodities, we want to be sure that you create jobs in our country. In fact, despite what was said by the members, that's an area in which we've had significant loss—in manufacturing jobs, particularly in traditional industries.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
So you're saying you want some type of job guarantee?
Mayor, City of Burnaby
I want to create jobs in Canada and to ensure that jobs are guaranteed and that if you are doing business in Canada it will be to create jobs and not simply to take resources.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
There's nothing wrong with that.
So what would your advice be? For example, in the manufacturing sector in my riding I have one of the largest suit manufacturers in North America. They've benefited from the free trade agreement with the U.S. Now, because of China, the only reason the jobs are still there is because they're able to export to the States. So they're bringing in goods from China, but they're still able to export to the U.S. That industry is actually still benefiting from the free trade with the United States and not benefiting from the, let's say, less expensive items coming from China. How do you guarantee that the jobs are going to stay in this country?
Mayor, City of Burnaby
It's like the earlier question, how do you pick the winners and losers? Who's going to win and who's going to lose? Who's going to be in a position where they're going to be overwhelmed by imports that are going to cause their industry to go into bankruptcy, and who's going to find that there's new markets that are open to them?
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Wouldn't you rather trade with countries that you actually have a free trade agreement with, friendly countries, for lack of a better term?
Mayor, City of Burnaby
I think that it's not necessary to have free trade agreements, or to create investor rights in order to do so. I think you can simply have tariff adjustments that will allow you to manage whatever investment you want.
Liberal
Mayor, City of Burnaby
Reducing or increasing tariffs based on what you want to stimulate in your own economy.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Very good. Thank you very much.
Mr. Holder, the floor is yours for seven minutes.