Mr. Speaker, my area of expertise and particular interest is the environment.
Since Brian Mulroney's government, the Conservatives have put forward a number of free trade proposals, some of which have been implemented, that are a race to the bottom in many areas but especially on the environment. Dozens of environmental groups have castigated Colombia's almost total lack of environmental protection in one of the most sensitive and biodiverse regions on the planet. Not one has endorsed it.
I would like to read from the proposed Canada-Colombia free trade agreement:
Each Party shall ensure that it maintains appropriate procedures for assessing the environmental impacts in accordance with national law...
The problem is that Colombia has virtually no environmental regulations. It has virtually no environmental laws. It has no willingness to protect either human rights or the environment.
For the hon. member of the Conservative Party to say that there are parallel agreements in the environment is to avoid the facts. Could he respond to this please?