Madam Speaker, I want to reconfirm that the Canada-Colombia free trade deal was signed on November 21, 2008, right smack in the middle of the international trade committee dealing with this effort. I have to ask the government this. Why would it have the committee undertake a study of this deal and, while doing its work and before the reports can be tabled, sign the deal anyway?
What about the Conservative members on that committee? Are they pawns in a game? They should do whatever they are told and not worry about things. “Pretend you are wasting all this taxpayer money on studies, witnesses and reviews, don't worry we're not going to listen to anything you say anyway because we're going ahead and signing it”.
This is the problem with the Conservative government. It promised us accountability and transparency. What did we get? An incredible number of Conservative bag people, Tory hacks and political contributions. This is its accountability review. “If you donate to the Conservative Party, you too can be a judge in Canada”. This is the type of system we want to tell the Colombians about, that they should follow our lead, that corruption begins at the highest places, even in our Canadian democracy?
Getting back to the free trade deal, we firmly believe these deals should be based on fairness, equality, the rights of workers, the rights of people and, most important, the environmental standards for both countries. If these deals were predicated upon those items, then we would probably be very supportive. However, we get backhanded deals, we get told all kinds of wonderful things by the government, “Don't worry, be happy”. Bobby McFerrin sang that song years ago and won a Grammy for it, but the Conservatives would never win a Grammy for that, I can assure everyone.
They Conservatives are deliberately misleading the House and Canadians when they make these deals without fair and proper observation by the committees and a thorough analysis and debate by the House. This is why we are here.
I remember when the Conservatives were on this side of House, they stood on their chairs like banshees and screamed and yelled every time the Liberals tried to pull something like this. It is quite amazing to know that the Liberals are very supportive of this. They are in the pockets of the Conservatives on this deal.
At the end of the day, only time will tell if these trade deals are successful. I can guarantee one thing. We have seen other deals that Canada has made in other areas of the world and the workers are still no better off. The environment is getting worse and the debts and deficits of those countries are rising.
Where is the proof that these deals actually succeed in the long term and who do they benefit? Who are the main beneficiaries of these deals? Who is pushing the government so hard to get these deals signed so fast with a country like Colombia?
As my hon. colleague from Prince George said earlier, is it not our responsibility to help them, to work with them, to assist them with worker stability and the environment? Absolutely, but we do not need a trade deal to do that. We can send a lot of people there to assist them in moving forward in a more democratic manner. This is why this deal should not be ratified.
The bill should be killed. I am glad to see the Bloc Québécois and the NDP siding on this very important issue.