Mr. Speaker, my Bloc colleague's comments raised as many questions as they gave information about the view of this very complex international convention. The points made by the previous speaker, the member for Timmins—James Bay, cited a number of very legitimate concerns and provided reasons why the NDP will oppose Bill C-53.
The NDP is very concerned that the ICSID falls under the jurisdiction of the World Bank, an organization that the NDP has cited numerous concerns about in the past, partly in terms of transparency but also in terms accessibility for users of this tribunal process, this quasi-judicial arbitration process.
I am concerned that the House of Commons today, as we entertain Bill C-53, is not digging deep enough into how we envision this tribunal unfolding and the precedent setting status that it will have.
One of the most alarming concerns that I would like my colleague to comment on is that one of the arguments used by the government in favour of ratifying the international convention is that ICSID shelters foreign investors from the courts of any country or jurisdiction in which the investment is made. I thought we would be alarmed that we are setting up some kind of a dual parallel process that will shelter investors from the courts in the jurisdiction in which the investment is taking place.
In other words, this quasi-judicial arbitration process being set up by the World Bank will have precedence and primacy over the courts of the provinces of Quebec or Manitoba or the Federal Court if it, in fact, is an investment in the federal jurisdiction.
Are we prepared to cede that jurisdiction to an outside party such as the World Bank? Is our confidence in the World Bank such that we are willing to forgo our own court's jurisdiction? If we are interested in the best interests of Canadians, we should be throwing our confidence and faith in our own court system and let this foreign investor be judged by our high standards instead of a new arbitration process, which will likely be residenced in Washington, D.C. and under the jurisdiction of the World Bank.