Mr. Speaker, we support this bill.
Fundamentally, this project regarding corporate social responsibility is about taking the responsibilities, the rights and the standards that we enjoy here in Canada, that people have worked so hard to put in place, and ensuring that those standards on human rights, labour rights and environmental rights are applied to Canadian companies when they do their business abroad.
I do not have to tell members that this is important work that we have done here, and we continue to do that kind of work, protecting the environment and protecting human rights and labour rights here in Canada, but it is absolutely critical that we establish standards that are consistent when our companies are doing operations abroad.
I want to thank the member for Scarborough—Guildwood for his initiative. I also have to reference a couple of my colleagues who brought this issue to the House. The member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre prior to me was Ed Broadbent. He worked tirelessly on this file, on democratic reform, and he pushed to have the round table report written.
Members will know that the round table report was a good way of getting to the issue by bringing people from both civil society, including some of the groups that were mentioned by my friend from the Bloc, as well as from business. Mr. Broadbent, during his entire career in terms of academia and public service, as a member of this House and as leader of our party, always wanted to see the model that has worked so well in other mature democracies, where we bring together all of the disparate groups of business, labour and civil society, to forge good policy.
I must give credit. That was done. We had the report. It was tabled and the government was asked for a response over two years ago. It was not until just last week that we received a response from the government. I am actually very upset, disappointed and surprised that the government did not take the advice given to it from business and civil society to do the right thing.
Instead of bringing in standards, along the lines of what I just laid out, on human rights, labour rights and environmental rights that should apply to Canadian companies doing business abroad, and bringing in an enforcement and monitoring mechanism with an ombudsperson, what did the government do? It brought in voluntary guidelines. Just put those two words together and I will leave it to members if they think that is sufficient.
Instead of an ombudsperson, it brought in a counsellor. Counsellors have a role. We go to them for advice sometimes, but they have no business in this file. What the government did was play around with nomenclature. It said that instead of an ombudsperson there will be a counsellor.
What the government did was an insult, to be blunt. After years of waiting for a response from government on this important file, it gave back thin gruel. It might as well have not responded at all because the consensus report by business and civil society was very clear as to the road forward. All it had to do was adopt the recommendations.
I remember well at committee, having a motion put forward at the foreign affairs committee asking for a response from the government. It said, “It's okay. We're working on it”. Two years later and this is what we get.
This is an important initiative. We have to forge ahead. We cannot let this ball be dropped. We cannot let it be watered down. We cannot let the government's response be seen as a responsible response to all those people who worked so hard on this file.
What is this about? I want to talk a bit about the extractive industries abroad. I worked for half a year in Latin America in countries like Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, I saw directly what happens to everyday people when a company comes in, obtains rights to drill or mine and moves people who have been there forever off of their land because they are allowed to do whatever they want. They pull the resources out of the land, make a profit and leave town. They often leave behind tailings, a devastated environment, people who received meagre wages and an economy that is not better but worse. As they leave the country, they bring with them a handsome profit.
I know that most people who invest want to ensure their investments are ethical. Most people believe they are. I do not know anyone in my neighbourhood or constituency who would sleep well if they knew that the profits they were making off their investments were made at the expense of human suffering or environmental degradation. Sadly, most of the time they have no idea what is going on. This bill and the idea of corporate responsibility would shine a light on what is going on abroad and ensure we have standards and oversight in place.
I know many members of the Conservative caucus believe strongly in human right and in ethical investment. Many are members of faith communities and the old adage that one should not make a profit off the back of their brother is consistent with their faith. It is something that is understood and internalized by them. I am not sure that they know this as members of the Conservative caucus but they have not taken this opportunity.
Many faith groups have gotten behind this initiative, as well as civil society groups that believe strongly in the representation of workers and indigenous peoples in third world countries. Since I pushed my private member's bill initiatives at committee, the number of petitions from faith groups of all faiths that I have received in support of the bill has been tremendous. They have been very determined to see that what we do abroad is something that is consistent with our values. For them, it is consistent with their faith. For them, there is a direct connection between their faith and what happens to our companies that are investing abroad.
I am a little surprised that the Conservatives would allow voluntary guidelines to replace an ombudsperson with a counsellor. It does not seem to be consistent with many of them and their work within faith communities and the grassroots communities that we all work with. I challenge those within the Conservative caucus to take a look at the private member's bill here, take a look at their response that took two years and really measure it. I challenge them to talk it out with some of the people who are behind these initiatives in their faith communities. I think they would have a different opinion than the opinion they have provided. I challenge the members of the Conservative caucus to do that.
In summary, this is the way forward to get responsibility in our investments abroad. This would ensure that Canada's name is solid and that the article we saw in The Globe and Mail yesterday about Canada's reputation will not be repeated. This would ensure that when we have mining companies in South Africa, Latin America or anywhere else in the world where Canada is involved in enterprise, we will not be seen as exploiting people, nature or any of the other conditions that we seem to be exploiting. We need this and we should support it. I stand here gladly supporting this initiative and my party will as well.