Thank you for this opportunity.
I'll confine my remarks to some of the negative impacts this agreement would have on the environment and on the most vulnerable in our society.
Canada has promised to transition to a low-carbon economy. As Canadian governments are involved in discussions on how we might work towards a clean energy future, we're at the same time facing what might be termed a derailment of this process in the TPP agreement, which threatens to undermine economic environmental progress.
This agreement poses a devastating threat to the common good by favouring multinational corporations. In similar trade agreements, Canada has already been sued 35 times, and 63% of these claims have involved challenges to environmental protection. The TPP would most likely only serve to increase the number of these suits, especially in investor-state dispute settlements.
With the removal of gas export restrictions, this agreement would further encourage the extraction of fossil fuels and advance the rate of exploration and extraction of natural gas. In addition, there is a high probability that Canadian manufacturing jobs would be outsourced to Vietnam and Malaysia to avail of cheap labour. There the production of goods is two to four times more carbon-intensive. Added to this, the added shipping-related greenhouse gas emissions would have significant negative environmental implications, thus further severely impacting the lives of this and future generations of the entire earth community.
Clearly, the dangers involved in signing an agreement that would protect the interests of large multinational corporations—