Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition which is signed by many residents of my constituency of Burnaby—Douglas, the Vancouver area and elsewhere in British Columbia that notes with concern that the Government of Canada continues to be at the table to negotiate an international trade agreement called the multilateral agreement on investment, or the MAI, and I might add, despite the fact that France has pulled out of this particular discussion.
They note that the MAI is the latest in a series of regional and global agreements which in the name of liberalizing trade and investment expands the powers of multinational corporations at the expense of the powers of governments to intervene in the marketplace on behalf of our social, cultural, environmental and health care goals.
The petitioners point out that the MAI is undemocratic. Therefore they call upon parliament to reject the current framework of MAI negotiations and instruct the government to seek an entirely different agreement by which the world might achieve a rules based global trading regime that protects workers, the environment and the availability of governments to act in the public interest.