Mr. Speaker, I was in Thunder Bay just last Friday night. I know how hard the member works in the House of Commons. He is a real workhorse. Being in Thunder Bay, I was aware how hard working and visible he is for his constituents in his riding, speaking on their behalf and presenting legislation. He is another phenomenal member, along with the members for Elmwood—Transcona and Nickel Belt who do a tremendous job in the House.
The point that he raises is a very valid one. Every other industrialized economy has domestic procurement programs. It is only Canada that is caught in this old-time, 20-year-old rhetoric that attacks the idea of procurement and the use of taxpayers' money to stimulate domestic and community economies. It is only here that we do not have a domestic procurement program that makes sense and actually stimulates jobs.
Thunder Bay is one area where it has worked. Toronto is another. Where municipal and procurement programs exist, there has been an enormous benefit from using taxpayers' dollars to stimulate the economic development of the communities. It is something that is permissible under WTO rules; other countries use it. There is no doubt that it provides that benefit.
In this corner of the House, we have been the foremost advocates of buy-Canadian policies that would also allow us the leverage to negotiate the kinds of exemptions that would have been more effective than what the government was able to come up with. We have been the foremost advocates of those. We are still working on convincing members of other parties, but the reality is that if we had that leverage, we would have had a better agreement than what we were seized with in the international trade committee.
The trade committee report very clearly indicates there were real shortcomings in both the negotiating strategy and the results obtained through this agreement. That is why the majority of the committee members submitted the report with strong recommendations and looked very carefully at the due diligence aspect, in particular, ensuring that government actually works on the data; assesses the agreement's impact; ensures that information is collected; and ensures, depending on the estimates, as the Quebec ministry officials said, that there is real access to the $1.3 billion in contracts. That is something we will have to see.
Those five recommendations very clearly say there needs to be more consultation, more exchange of information, and due diligence to collect the data and monitor this agreement on an ongoing basis.