Mr. Speaker, for me this has a bit of the same feel to it as the multilateral agreement on investment did under the former Liberal agreement. I have concerns about transparency and about accessibility for people to actually participate in the process.
However, I guess my most important concern focuses on accountability. As I look at all of this, the decisions issued through an ICSID arbitration are binding and there are limited grounds under which the process can be appealed. They are all very narrow reasons. They include: the tribunal was not properly constituted; it manifestly exceeded its powers; there was corruption on the tribunal; there was a breach in the rules of procedure; or, the award failed to state the reasons on which it was based. These grounds make absolutely no allowances for other substantive reasons for which a sovereign state might well decide, for the benefit of its citizens, to disagree with an arbitration decision.
I wonder if the member could elaborate a little more on why he feels comfortable, as a member on the government side, to do this to the Canadian public, to support a process that, as I said earlier, has no transparency, no accountability and no accessibility.