Mr. Speaker, here are some facts.
This agreement would be in force for 15 years and even if the government does not renew the agreement and cancels it, the provisions of the agreement mean that it would stay in force for a further 15 years after that. The member well knows that. In short, this agreement, even if cancelled, would be in force for a minimum of 30 years, plus the one year. That is a fact.
Second, I put a motion before the trade committee to study the FIPA. As the current Conservative government is fond of doing, it went behind closed doors, so I am not at liberty to tell members how anyone voted. However, what I can tell members is that when we came out of that meeting, my motion was denied.
When the government tries to tell the Canadian public that it wants to shine the light on this agreement, that is belied by the facts. The government refused to study this FIPA and to bring stakeholders, Canadians and investors to our committee where we could actually study the agreement to see if it were a good deal.
The reason the Conservatives were afraid to do that is that they know it is a bad deal. They know that Canadians would not accept a deal that would allow China to go behind closed doors to hear disputes in private and they would not sign a deal that would give Canadian investors less equal treatment than Chinese investors.
I ask the member, why will the government not agree to study this deal when it will have such important ramifications and be in force for a minimum of 31 years? Why will it not allow the trade committee to study this? For Canadians, answer that direct question.