Mr. Speaker, I am glad to have the opportunity to speak for a few minutes on an issue that is very important.
On October 24, I had asked the Minister of International Trade to protect Canadian jobs and to stand up for our auto industry. Not only did the minister not answer my question, which is not an always unusual thing around here, but he accused an important workers group of engaging in “fraudulent economics”.
That group was an organized union group that was visiting and talking with all members of Parliament. They had a lot of statistics and I have not been able to find any of them that were fraudulent.
I stressed that the minority Conservative government should never sign a deal that fails to eliminate non-tariff barriers. It is an issue that is important to many of us in the House. The minister replied by saying, “We clearly are focused on non-tariff barriers”. Then he said, “We are focused on tariff barriers”. Which is it?
This rubbish answer is clearly not acceptable to Canadians who are trying to understand exactly what this process is and how important these deals are, how the auto industry is extremely important and how the deal with South Korea is an extremely important one for our country.
Our manufacturing industry is in crisis and our auto industry is clearly being hit very hard, yet the government continues to negotiate a flawed free trade deal with South Korea that is bad for the auto industry and bad for Canada.
Thousands of jobs have been lost this year and more will be lost under this proposed agreement. Hence the reason that we are concerned about exactly what is in the deal and whether or not it will come to Parliament, so that all of us can have our chance to comment on it.
Just two weeks ago, Chrysler announced it will eliminate about 1,100 jobs in Brampton as part of its second restructuring in eight months. Since one job in the auto industry results in up to 7,000 spin-off jobs, those are major losses in Ontario and throughout Canada.
The minority Conservative government is selling out the auto industry in its free trade agreement negotiations with South Korea. The agreement is so dangerous as it does not provide fair access to the lucrative South Korean market. It is something that we all share. We want a free trade deal, but we want a fair deal.
If we are to improve our free trade agreement, we must first ensure that the minister and his negotiators have secured an agreement with South Korea that allows Canada's auto industry access to South Korean's large auto market. That is what a free trade deal is supposed to be doing.
The Liberal Party wants to make certain that any free trade agreement with South Korea contains mechanisms that will actually result in a free and fair deal. The minority Conservative government has refused to have a debate in Parliament on this critical issue.
Our responsibility as parliamentarians on all sides of this House means that we are better off not striking a deal at all if we are not going to strike one that is good for Canada. We must ensure that any potential South Korean free trade agreement is in the best interests of all Canadians. It is critical that the Canadian industry and workers see positive results rather than the continued attack on the domestic industry that has been the result of so many of the Conservative policies.