Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Mark Warner, thanks a lot for bringing up the history of these mechanisms and emphasizing the importance of these mechanisms in depoliticization. That's an excellent point that many of us forget. Also, you mentioned twice that we are becoming a capital exporter. The capital export is still growing.
Mr. Lawrence Herman, I did read the note that you circulated. Let me just quote the last part of your note. You mentioned the need for modernization to make the ad hoc arbitration process more efficient, effective and consistent. That is very important. You also touched on state-to-state obligations. Once again, many of us forget about that. The foreign investment protection and promotion agreements are a fact of life today. Canadian companies earlier, in the previous generation...a few mining companies were investing abroad. These days, a lot of Canadian investment is going from the Canada pension plan, the OMERS or the teachers' pension and we have been investing elsewhere.
To take a specific example, Canadian investments in India are about $52 billion. We don't have a FIPA yet. We don't have any foreign investment protection agreements with India. What is the mechanism available for Canadian capital exporters to protect our investments?
Just because a few Canadian mining companies acted in a wrong way, to paint all Canadian companies as bad actors is something I don't agree with. I think we need to have a mechanism where the funds of an average Canadian that are invested through our pension plans, whether the CPP, OMERS or the teachers'....
What is the mechanism available when they invest in Asia and South America, or for example, in India, where we don't have any protection agreements?