Before being the economist at CUPE, I was the economist at the Canadian Labour Congress. I definitely was involved in consultations around previous trade agreements under Stephen Harper's government. Those consultations were very much one-way. It would be a webinar. You would try to ask questions, and they would just ignore your questions.
Definitely, during the process for NAFTA, we were able to come to negotiating rounds. We could ask the negotiators questions. The staff took lots of time with us and were willing to meet with us regularly. I just want to say that the labour folks were amazing. They took a lot of time with us and really were great, but so were other people. They were happy to have us challenge their perspective on the trade deal and engage with us in a really productive way, which was valuable. I would definitely hope to see that continue, because there's nothing that mandates it. The political will of the current government allowed it to happen.