In most contexts, treaty-based ISDS is not going to do anything for companies that have assets below hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in the country abroad. There should be a sequenced approach to managing the Canadian interest in withdrawal and the Canadian investor interest in still having sufficient protections that are tailored to that investor's needs.
For example, the highest priority was always NAFTA. We're out of ISDS under NAFTA, box ticked, great, thank you very much, Minister Freeland. I emailed her at the time to thank her for basically asking for Canada what the Americans were demanding for themselves. The Americans wanted to keep ISDS for Canada and Mexico but not have the obligations themselves. Well, that was a non-starter for our government, and I thank you for that.
Beyond that, I say keep CETA provisionally applied and keep ISDS out. Do it quietly, but make sure ISDS is not coming in. Also, don't leave it just to European member states to not ratify. Make it clear that ISDS is never going to be applied under CETA. I will be so happy for Canada on that day.
Next, on the CPTPP, oh, dear, that was a turn in the wrong direction. At the time, we were changing ISDS on CETA and actually getting ready to get out of it in NAFTA. Look at the example of New Zealand and Australia: They have side deals under the CPTPP that remove ISDS as between them. I don't see how we can't conclude similar side deals with those same countries in the CPTPP.
As for the bilateral investment treaties, it's a bit of a different story, but if you want to protect Canadian SMEs, there are far more important measures that can be pursued at a lower level than the grand claims of treaty-based ISDS.