Evidence of meeting #4 for International Trade in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was agreement.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
No, he didn't try. All he had to do was get my attention and I would have certainly interrupted the minister and allowed him to do that. Now that time is up and we're using valuable time.
Because we have Minister Freeland here only until 12:30 the other members want an opportunity.
I have Mr. Dhaliwal next on the speaking list. Then if we have enough time, we have Mr. Kram.
Mr. Dhaliwal, you have four minutes.
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Surrey—Newton, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Deputy Prime Minister, I want to commend you for your leadership and team Canada for the work they have done that essentially brought home a deal for Canada and Canadians.
The Liberal government has made a number of contributions to support women and girls, and gender equality. My question to you is on this. When I look at Surrey—Newton, and Surrey in general, there's a growing number of businesses that are run by women, particularly small businesses. How is this agreement going to help women and girls, young entrepreneurs and LGBTQ communities?
Liberal
Chrystia Freeland Liberal University—Rosedale, ON
Let me, first of all, thank you, Mr. Dhaliwal, for the hard work that you have done throughout this negotiating process. I know this agreement is important to you personally, and to your constituents. It's been a pleasure to work with you on it.
I'd like to start by being a little more precise on the times when, throughout the agreement, I have appeared before committee. I believe that I have appeared before committee to talk about NAFTA four times already. Those were August 14, 2017; February 8, 2018; June 19, 2018; and May 28, 2019—that's for House committees. We'll give you more information in due course about Senate committees. I did refer to previous committee appearances and I wanted to be precise about that.
When it comes to women and girls, that is actually one of the lesser-known successes of this trade agreement. In this agreement, we were able to achieve new—much greater than we have in the current NAFTA—protections for Canadian women and girls, and protections for Canadians when it comes to labour issues in particular, such as that Canadians and their gender identification should not be a cause for discrimination.
As I mentioned in my opening remarks, we were also able to achieve unprecedented protections for indigenous people, including the special role indigenous people have when it comes to protecting our environment.
These are really some new areas for trade agreements to codify. It's part of what I was speaking about with Mr. Blaikie, of the progressive trade agenda that our government has sought to put forward. We had put together in the trade team an entirely new group of officials who, for the first time, were working together specifically on the indigenous issues. It is really new ground for Canada. There is a lot more to be done, but I am pleased that we were able to move the puck forward when it comes to protections for women, protections for girls, protections for LGBTQ people and protections for indigenous people in this landmark agreement.
When it comes specifically to the protections for indigenous people, I would like to thank, by name, Perry Bellegarde. He was a member of our NAFTA council. He worked very hard with us on all aspects of the new NAFTA but in particular on the indigenous issues, and he worked with indigenous partners across North America. I think this is an area in which, going forward, when it comes to trade agreements, Canada will need to continue to do more work. With the new NAFTA, we have laid what I believe are some really important, really valuable foundations.
The protections for indigenous people, for women and girls, and for LGBTQ Canadians are part of the labour and environmental chapters where, overall, we have made some really great progress, both in the specific content of those chapters and also.... Again, I'm turning to Mr. Blaikie as well, because this has long been a concern—I'll finish, Madam Chair—of progressive people thinking about trade. It has been to do better on labour and the environment, but also to do better when it comes to enforceability. I think one of the very strong features of the new NAFTA is much greater enforceability on the environmental chapter and particularly on the labour chapter.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you very much, Minister Freeland.
I'll move on to Mr. Kram for, I believe, two minutes.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
As you can imagine, I'd like to begin by moving a motion and having it read into the record. The motion is as follows:
That, in relation to the committee’s study of Bill C-4, An Act to implement the Agreement between Canada, the United States of America and the United Mexican States and pursuant to Standing Order 108(1)(a), the Deputy Prime Minister provide the committee with the economic analysis of the agreement prepared by the Chief Economist at Global Affairs Canada and that the committee invite the Chief Economist at Global Affairs Canada, Marie-France Paquet, to appear before the committee to give testimony and answer questions on the economic analysis of the agreement.
Can we discuss this motion after we have finished questioning the minister?
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Freeland, for being here.
Given that time is tight, I'll go straight to my question about the new dairy export tariffs. To your knowledge, has Canada ever agreed in a past free trade agreement to limit Canadian exports to a country that was not party to the agreement?
Liberal
Chrystia Freeland Liberal University—Rosedale, ON
When it comes to the supply management sector, let me start by saying something that it is very important. In this negotiation, Canada faced an unprecedented U.S. demand. It was an explicit and open demand that we dismantle the supply management system entirely. The U.S. starting position was that, for us to do a deal with the United States to preserve our essential market access, the price would be to entirely do away with supply management. It's very important for Canadians to be clear that was the U.S. position.
I really want to thank the members of Canada's supply management sector, Canadian farmers, who have an extremely sophisticated understanding of trade agreements, and with whom we consulted extensively. They were very aware of what the U.S. position was, and they were very aware of the extreme lengths that Canada went to in order to preserve our supply management system.
I am very pleased with the outcome we achieved, which was that, by offering limited access to the Canadian market, we were able to preserve our supply management system.
I would point out as well, and we've been asked this question already and I think it is an important one, that we do recognize that this part of the agreement does mean that our supply management farmers are absolutely entitled to fair and equitable compensation. That is something to which this government is absolutely committed. It's something I'm very happy to reiterate today so that all Canadian supply management farmers to know that, once we get this agreement ratified—and we're in the process of it entering into force—the government is absolutely committed to putting in place fair and equitable compensation for our supply management farmers.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you very much, Minister Freeland, Mr. Verheul and Ms. Hillman. Thank you all very much for being here.
We will suspend for two minutes while our other witnesses come to the table.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
I'm calling the meeting back to order.
Sorry, folks, we have a lot on our agenda, so we have to just keep on a roll.
Yes, Ms. Bendayan.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
Madam Chair, I would like to move a motion regarding the study schedule for Bill C-4. The motion pertains to the study that we're currently undertaking, and it's based on the motion that was introduced by our colleague Mr. Carrie at the last meeting.
I'm introducing a fresh motion. For procedural ease, I have copies, which I will give to the clerk.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Sorry, Ms. Bendayan, just hold on a second. I have a point of order here.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Just to review the process, are we going to hear witnesses and then do motions at the end of the meeting, or did you want to go into motions now and deal with all the motions before the witnesses?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
My suggestion is to let Ms. Bendayan table her motion, and then we can continue on with witnesses and choose to do it afterwards, at the end of the meeting.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
We had agreed, with Mr. Carrie's motion, to deal with it at the beginning of this session, which is the reason we're dealing with it.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
I'm just confused then. Do you want to deal with in its entirety, or do you want to get yours on the record for now and then deal with it at the end of the session?
I'm okay either way.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Maybe a suggestion is that we deal with it at the end of today. We could find ourselves an extra 10 minutes so we don't interrupt our witness time.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Then we can give our witnesses a chance.
I'm good now, thanks. Please, go ahead.
Liberal
Rachel Bendayan Liberal Outremont, QC
It's no problem. Yes, I'm fine with that. Thank you, Mr. Hoback.
The motion you have before you specifies that the bill would be reviewed by colleagues in three other committees: the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food; the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology; and the Standing Committee on Natural Resources.
It also lays out a timeline for suggested amendments to be returned and for clause-by-clause.
I can now read the motion, Madam Chair.