In the minute that I have, I will add a few comments to the ones you've already heard about chapter 12, and about chapter 19, the labour chapter of the TPP.
On chapter 12, just to reinforce the points you have already heard from a previous speaker, the title of the chapter, “Temporary Entry for Business Persons”, is a misnomer, to be charitable about it, because the people covered by the chapter are any nationals of any country with respect to which we have a reciprocal agreement under this chapter. It's open-ended in terms of the character of the people who may enter Canada under the rules of this chapter.
“Temporary” is also an interesting way to describe their entry into Canada, because depending on which category they fall into, they may be entitled to come here for three years, and that may period may be extended. They may be entitled to bring their spouses with them. Their spouses need have no particular qualification whatsoever to work in Canada, but they are entitled to look for work here and to work here while their partners are here.
The essential features of the chapter remove Canada's ability to regulate the number of foreign workers who enter the country, because Canada is no longer entitled to apply its labour market impact assessment process. That's a fundamental erosion of our regulatory capacity to control labour markets. It removes labour certification tests as a precondition to gaining entry to the country and receiving a permit to work here. Those are fundamentally problematic features of a regime that will now require Canadian workers, regardless of whether they're employed or not, to compete with foreign workers for jobs in this country.
The other chapter of the agreement that I want to briefly comment on is chapter 19, which deals with labour rights. At first look or at first blush, it looks like a progressive initiative to begin to build into an international trade agreement some protection for core labour standards. Under the agreement, the countries are obliged to put in place statutes and regulations that give effect to certain core labour standards as set out under the ILO declaration. These concern the right to organize, to bargain collectively, rules about child labour, rules about slave labour. That's all to the good.
The problem is that the declaration of the ILO sets out—