Thank you, and thank you everyone for being here today.
To Mr. Sinclair's point, I think this study has been quite unique for us at the trade committee because, for a very welcome change, we're not only discussing dropping the tariffs; we're talking about all the other issues that exist beneath them. If we don't start to address those in trade agreements in a way that's meaningful, then we can open all the doors we want to countries, but we're never going to be able to go through them. Unfortunately, because of our regulatory system, all of those countries have very easy access to Canada. We don't want to see that undermine the success of any of the sectors that are trading, which are essentially all of them.
I want to ask Mr. Sinclair something this morning. You spoke about ISDS. I think there has to be this distinction. We've certainly heard from Mr. Marshall that they are looking for a state-to-state resolution process in terms of being able to resolve issues, but ISDS in the Canadian context has been quite harmful.
Yesterday we saw the result of the federal government trying to push back against a NAFTA Chapter 11 ISDS ruling against us in the Bilcon case, which would essentially see Canada forced to pay $443 million because of future profits that Bilcon says they have lost. This is the largest amount we've ever talked about in this kind of trend up in the losses that corporations are trying to get from the Canadian government.
Can you speak a little bit to that particular case? What other dangers do you see in ISDS and the trend we're on in terms of what's being sought by these foreign corporations? Essentially, we now know, with this ruling, that we are defenceless.