Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest to the speech by the hon. member. It intrigues me that he made the statement that this is the first opportunity he has had in the House to talk about the MAI. Then he went on to criticize everyone else for being supportive of the concept.
One question I would like to ask him is why the NDP did not bring this issue before the House itself. The NDP has had supply days. What did it do? It used up its supply days on other situations that were not nearly as important as this. The first thing I would like the hon. member to do is to explain to the people of Canada why he did not bring forth this issue right away.
The second thing I would like him to explain to me is this 20 year rule he mentioned toward the end of his speech. The government has said that it is actually not 20 years, that it is five years. The 20 years only apply to companies that have invested during the five year period if a country then opts out.
For example if McCain Foods were to invest $300 million in a canning plant in Malaysia and Malaysia then opted out, McCain Foods would be protected for a further 15 years. That is the government's explanation. Does the hon. member have some other version of that explanation?