Mr. Speaker, the member for Nickel Belt is another member whom we have on the floor who contributes vastly to the debate. We have a pretty phenomenal team in this corner of the House, the hard-working New Democrats who are working to really advance Canadian jobs and ensure that Canada has the negotiating clout to negotiate effective agreements.
Unfortunately, we have not yet seen from the government the ability to negotiate effectively. As Carl Grenier, a trade expert, said, when we go to negotiate at any cost, essentially what that results in is the type of agreement where we give up a lot more than we get, and this is very clearly the case here.
We had witnesses who spoke very clearly about a buy Canadian policy. They referenced Toronto and its Canadian content requirement, which allowed, in a significant public purchase, a sizable share of economic benefits to come back to Canadians.
We also had a number of comments about the fact that the United States believes in using public money, money that belongs to taxpayers, to stimulate jobs in its own domestic economy. Steven Shrybman, a public interest lawyer who is well-known in Toronto, said the following:
I think the United States understands that spending public money to create public goods is also a reasonable way to make jobs. I don't think U.S. states are going to give up that prerogative.
That indeed is the issue.
Getting back to the member's question, the issue is simply that the buy American program of the United States under the Jones Act is actually something that is allowable under WTO rules. So it is simply false to pretend that a buy Canadian program would not be within that framework of the WTO.