Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, to date, 143 countries have signed this convention. Also, subsequent agreements that we have signed, the free trade agreement and NAFTA, provide for the ICSID arbitrators to resolve the investor state disputes both in Canada and in the country which the investor is a national party. That indicates the importance of this convention.
I cannot say why the provinces did not sign this but it is more important to know that we need to have a level playing field for our investors dealing with other countries as well.
I do not know why she says that there is no accountability in this process. We are discussing this act here in Parliament and it very clearly states the process. The idea that just because few disputes came before it there must be something wrong with the convention, that is not the idea. I do not know where she gets the idea that there should be disputes all the time every time. Most of the time, there are laws and situations in countries and the investors follow the local laws and do not need to go to these arbitrations. However, these are measures that give confidence to businesses and to everybody else that should those things arise dispute mechanisms are everywhere, including the WTO and NAFTA. This is something that is required and is needed.
As for the provinces, for whatever concerns they have, we will act together, but this law needs to be passed here in Parliament and we will actually be working with everybody to create that environment. Canada is a nation of trading. Over 40% of our GDP is based on foreign--