Mr. Speaker, the government keeps talking about mythical numbers and telling us how great this agreement is that they do not have the courage to show us. Let us address transparency. In the section of the leaked memorandum between the EU Commission and the trade committee that addresses public utilities, the commission refers to concessions that Canada has made “reluctantly”. The concessions have to do with the fact that the EU is maintaining various reservations for public utilities, whereas Canada is putting those on the table.
The document says that Canada has asked the EU member states to make a change to the language “which would help in the presentation to our provinces”. It sounds an awful lot like Canada is asking the EU to help it create spin to more easily sell a raw deal to our provinces. The government has shown a lack of respect to the provinces before, but this is outrageous. The government has long insisted that it wants this deal done before the end of the year, and with that fast approaching it is evident we are far from a fair deal, a balanced deal, for Canada.
Will the government commit to listening to Canadians and keep working at this until we have a deal that is good for our economy and all Canadians, and that is balanced between the two economies?