Well, thank you very much for the opportunity to appear.
I certainly agree with a lot of what John has said, and particularly with the value of trade to this province and to the economy. So I want to make it very clear that we're not opposed to trade agreements. We have some concern with the experiences that we've had with free trade agreements, but we don't tar every issue with the same brush.
The biggest concern we have with this, and I'll touch on it through my presentation, is the fact that we know so little about this deal. We've not been consulted on it. I did a couple of interviews on this when others found out that I was going to appear before the committee and asked why we were opposed to it. I said the same thing there: it's not necessarily that we're totally opposed to it, but in my life, representing workers, you don't ratify a collective agreement you haven't read. So there are a lot of unanswered questions that come out of this.
When we look at the process, and I will be very much upfront with you, we know that the provinces are being called upon to play a vital role in this. They've been sitting, I don't know if the proper term is, as “observers” at some of the tables, but not necessarily in a negotiating process. We've been lobbying our government since early 2012 and are continuing that process with the current government, talking about our concerns with ratification or endorsement of this process until we know that all of the questions are answered.
We don't believe they should endorse or sign onto this if there's going to be a lot of liability or more veils of secrecy that are not uncovered to them. Basically, that's where we're at with this. Again, we're not opposed, but we are pushing hard that we must have, before it's ratified, true, open, public consultation so that people know exactly what we have.
I will go through this quickly, because I think they passed this out and I know time is limited, but I want to touch on some issues. We are a body of the Canadian Labour Congress, and a lot of what I'll be talking about, you probably heard in some other regions of the country. Our overall concern with the CETA, from what we hear and what's been dribbled out, is that there could be a substantial hike in provincial drug costs, and that provincial and local governments' ability to use procurement to boost local economic development could be undermined, increasing provinces' vulnerability to corporate lawsuits against environmental protection and other public interest regulations. It could also erode supply management in the dairy industry.
John talked about other things that he's involved in. On my part, I've been very active as co-chair of the Premier's Council on the Economy, as a member of the Ships Start Here table from the start, and as helping to develop the workforce for tomorrow, a committee that's now very active with business, labour, and community organizations. We see some of this, and I won't speak for the other bodies, but when you look at how negative an impact these things can have on some of our industries and jobs, then we're very concerned about where our job opportunities are going. And even with the fishing industry, even though it's going to increase its exports, we don't know what that's actually going to mean for the processing.
On the pharmaceutical issues, we have a lot of concerns because we've already agreed or given into EU demands to create a new system, to the extent of allowing a patent term extension of another two years, thereby protecting the monopoly of brand name drugs. With the availability of cheaper generic medicines, when you do the comparison, this extension could cost Nova Scotia between $29 million to $56 million annually, beginning in 2023. We realize that the federal government—