Mr. Speaker, my colleague is right in saying there are problems with it in terms of those countries which are trying to withdraw. The irony is that initially this was to be an arrangement that was to benefit countries in the southern hemisphere. After World War II and Breton Woods, and the setting up of the IMF, the World Bank was supposed to do the same thing.
I do not want to leave people with the impression that the New Democratic Party does not support the idea of these institutions. The problem is what happened to these institutions. The problem is they are not working for people.
Fundamentally the difference we have with the other parties is we believe that these institutions, in fact government itself, should be working for people and not the other way around. Instead, what has happened over a period of time is that these institutions have been tailored not to help people, but they have put corporations ahead. It is very interesting in international law when we look at the rights of people versus the rights of corporations. Corporations are trumping people time and time again. The effects are devastating. They are anti-democratic.
Instead of saying we believe in these institutions and that we should reform these institutions so that we can have trade deals that are going to help people and be fair, we see people who are involved in the business of lobbying and international lawyers who look out for the best interests of corporations and certainly themselves being able to change how these institutions work. That is so very sad.