One of the big problems—and I pulled out CETA and a good portion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—is that people who haven't read either agreement are talking about it. I have taken the time to read annexes, associated agreements, references, footnotes, and the agreements. When you do that, you very quickly start to understand that this is not about trade. It is about something completely different.
That is the message I would like to put to Canadians. This is about shifting the possibility of governments to govern in the public interest and blurring that line so that government is actually an enforcement agency for privilege and new rates for the largest corporations in the world.
Agriculture is a bailiwick of mine, but in terms of drug costs, when we extended drug patents in the early 1990s, that was about the time when the debate about the affordability of public health care started to change. That is the single biggest budget item for each provincial government. Over 50% of that single budget item is pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, which we are increasingly sourcing from a very small group of very large pharmaceutical companies that also supply farmers with chemicals and seeds, to a large extent, and they have ratcheted up the price.
We are transferring from the taxpayer directly to international corporations. Then we put caps in these agreements. We restrict them, but we can't do anything about our balance of payments. These are harmful to our countries—Canada in particular, but also the other participants in these agreements. That is absolutely what these things are about.
Read them, please. Sit down and read them.