Mr. Speaker, now that the Canada-China investment treaty can be legally ratified as soon as tomorrow, I wish to make one more plea to the Prime Minister to reconsider.
He should examine the Australian experience. There is a much larger volume of trade between Australia and China, in fact, six times as much. There is $60 billion in Chinese investment in Australia, and $7 billion in Australian investments in China.
Why do I mention it? Because the Australians did an independent risk-benefit analysis of this kind of investment treaty and decided the risks outweighed the benefits to their sovereignty and to their economy.
Please do not ratify.