Mr. Speaker, I too rise on the question of the multilateral investment agreement.
I agree with the member from Halifax that the agreement raises important issues, but I certainly do not see them in the light that he raised them. I agree with the parliamentary secretary when he says he appears to be working somewhere about a year out of date and with a lot of rhetoric that is not borne out.
We had a very interesting meeting in my riding recently in conjunction with the member for St. Paul's. It brought a great deal of intense discussion and a lot of interested citizens to this issue because it raises very important issues of global governance. I think these are issues that the government is seeking to address in a way that is important. I think it behoves us as members to look at it seriously. It raises very important issues. That is why the constituents of my riding and the member for St. Paul's riding came. We discussed this and heard issues.
We have to bear in mind two points. The first is that the minister addressed this issue when he asked the subcommittee of the committee on trade to look at the issue. The committee on trade came back to the minister and said that foreign investment agreements could be very useful to Canada and Canadians because they could further our investments abroad and at the same further job creation here.
However they must be looked at in a certain light. It must be guaranteed that we protect our culture. We must ensure that our environment is protected, that measures are not to be restrained in protecting our environment. We would like to see core ILO labour standards inserted in such an agreement.
That makes a lot of sense. Here is an opportunity not to dump on the agreement but an opportunity to make it better for Canadians and to make it better for labour standards as well as investment. What a wonderful opportunity. Let us not miss it.
The subcommittee also said health measures, educational and social services clearly must be exempt from any such agreement because they are not appropriate matters for foreign investment.
What did the minister do? He picked up this report by the committee and subsequently filed in the House a response to the report. In his response he states that specifically the government's response addresses in detail each recommendation made by the subcommittee and agrees with all of them.
The minister is to be congratulated. For the first time we saw an international agreement being negotiated brought before a parliamentary committee prior to the negotiations being completed. This was not for us to ratify after. This was something on which members of Parliament from all parties, including the party of the member for Halifax, had an opportunity to have some input, to the point where the minister has gone to the meetings. We know now from the newspaper reports what has taken place at those meetings.
Even Madam Barlow was quoted in the newspaper the other day as saying she was pleased that this government had stood up to what it said it would do. She was impressed by the fact that our negotiators had stuck to the instructions which were given to them to deal with this issue.
Given this and given the fact that this matter is now as we all know pushed off until the fall, I wonder if the parliamentary secretary could comment as to where he thinks it might go come the fall. Is there any likelihood as has been suggested by some that this might get involved in the discussions at the WTO as well, so that we have a comprehensive approach to this very important issue?