The way that ISDS has worked in the past—and will work again under the TPP—is that private tribunals looking at these issues are interpreting provisions in a way that gives very broad access to companies to sue the Canadian government. We've been, under NAFTA anyway, the most sued country, and I think the Bilcon case under NAFTA provides a good example.
In that case, an American company went through an independent environmental assessment process, a joint review panel out in Nova Scotia. Through a long process, the panel determined that it wasn't an appropriate project to go forward. They made that recommendation to the government. The government accepted that proposal. After that, the company turned to a NAFTA tribunal that wasn't well versed in our Canadian environmental assessment law and awarded damages. So far, we don't know how much, because that part of the hearing hasn't gone forward yet, but Canada lost.
That's the kind of thing that we need to be very worried about, because the idea that they should have gone through the environmental assessment and it should have been a rubber stamp is obviously inappropriate. It's a real process. It should be a real process. ISDS is opening the door to a company's saying that it doesn't like how the environmental assessment process works.
Like a Canadian company, they could have done a judicial review here. Instead, what they get to do is go to a NAFTA panel, which isn't available to Canadian companies, and get money—a lot of money—for it.