International Trade Committee on Feb. 29th, 2024

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Quickly, my last question to you would be this: Do we have resources to enter into a free trade negotiation, say, with countries like Ecuador or Indonesia?

[Dean Foster]

Yes, we've determined that we do have the resources. Of course, you resource a free trade agreement of this scale efficiently, not to the scale of, say, renegotiating the NAFTA, and we are intending to proceed on a largely virtual basis. We share a time zone, which is a big benefit vis-à-vis Indonesia, for example, and we have agreement with the Ecuadoreans that we will proceed as efficiently as possible in terms of resourcing the negotiations.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

Thank you.

I just want to say that both our excellent clerk and our excellent analyst pointed out that the document with the economic impact has been submitted, and it's going to increase Canada's GDP by 0.003%.

We will now turn to Monsieur Savard-Tremblay for two and a half minutes.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Ambassador, last Tuesday we received extremely disturbing information that a bomb had exploded in front of a young girl's home in Lago Agrio. She was involved in a lawsuit to put out the gas flares, which are used by oil companies in their community. One of those companies is Canadian. That's why this case is important to us.

Last week, this young girl also went, along with other activists, to the National Assembly of Ecuador to speak on the issue. They blew the whistle on the authorities that did not apply a court decision in their favour. I assume you're aware of that, given that a tweet from Amnesty International identified you. So you've probably seen it.

What steps will Canada take to defend these young defenders of the Amazon, who are at risk in Ecuador?

[Stephen Potter]

Yes, I was tagged on that tweet, as I am on many tweets, and we are following up to get more information on the situation.

I can mention, Mr. Chair, that we have, on many occasions, offered to the Ecuadorean government Canadian technology for controlling gas flaring, which we consider to be also an important concern in this country.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

When we talk about accidents in the oil fields, of course it's related to gas flaring. I would remind you that there was a court decision that was not respected. When we talk about a bomb, we are not talking about an accident.

I will ask my question again. I am not just talking about the projects themselves; I am talking about the activists who are involved in such causes.

Will Canada take action to defend the young defenders of the Amazon?

[Stephen Potter]

We have no concrete measures currently planned, but we do have constant conversations and outreach, including, for example, with the prefect of that province, Sucumbíos. We are working closely with him and with the Canadian companies operating in that area, in his area, to ensure good community relations and environmental practices.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

We will now turn to Mr. Cannings for our final questions for the day.

Go ahead for two and a half minutes.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Thank you. I'll continue along that line.

Just this morning the PSHA, the indigenous group from the Amazon, filed a complaint against Solaris Resources, a Canadian company, with the British Columbia Securities Commission, because they feel that Solaris has been misleading its investors, its shareholders, in its claims about having consent from local people with respect to this mining project.

We have a recent executive decree, number 754, which was designed to get around free, prior and informed consent, but the courts in Ecuador have declared it unconstitutional, stating that under the constitution that consent is required.

We have a situation with the Government of Ecuador right now. We've heard testimony about its being extremely unstable, so I'm just wondering whether this is a good time to even be thinking about negotiating with the Government of Ecuador for a free trade agreement. It seems to be a very fraught time for the people of Ecuador, and there's growing consensus among some people that we are kind of taking advantage of this situation in Ecuador and that it could radically change in the coming months.

I'm just wondering if you could comment on that.

[Stephen Potter]

My comment would be that the current government of Ecuador—the president, Daniel Noboa—was elected with a strong mandate to lead until May 2025. Also, the assembly members were elected through a free and fair process, which was observed by Canadian and international monitors and determined to be free.

There is a certain level of instability with respect to criminal gangs that have, as you've seen, overrun prisons and launched some attacks, but the government has gotten on top of those issues in the last few weeks, and we hope the situation will hold.

We deal with a democratically elected government.

With respect to some of the other questions that were raised, I would need to correct one point, about decree 754. It was not found by the constitutional court to be interfering with free, prior and informed consent. Instead, the constitutional court defined the difference between an environmental consultation process and a free, prior and informed consent process, and has asked that the assembly create a law on both of these points, both of these issues, rather than just a regulation. In the meantime, it has allowed the regulation to stand for environmental consultations only, which is what two Canadian projects have used, because they're not in indigenous areas.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

Ambassador, I gave you an extra minute. We are well over time now.

[Stephen Potter]

Thank you. There were a lot of questions there.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

I want to thank you for coming today and answering the questions. Mr. Foster, thank you as well.

With that, with everyone's consent, I will adjourn the meeting.