Mr. Speaker, I wish to inform the House that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques.
Today I really want to speak to my constituents and discuss a very important issue. It has to do with the motion put forward by my hon. colleague from Vancouver Kingsway.
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should inform the Government of the People's Republic of China, that it will not ratify the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement.
I would like to revisit the process that has led to this motion. The negotiation process leading up to the agreement was truly clandestine and undemocratic. The negotiations were conducted completely in secret. We were not able to have our say as the negotiations were progressing. They were not even open to parliamentarians. The negotiations took place in a tiny bubble.
Then, in October 2012, the Conservatives tabled the agreement, without consulting the provinces or first nations. There was no committee review or any consultation with Canadians. Despite all our efforts and requests, the agreement has never been debated or examined by a committee, nor has it ever been voted on.
I would first like to point out that this agreement affects a first nations right. In fact, the aboriginal peoples of Canada have a constitutional right to be consulted if the government adopts any measures that will have an impact on their rights. This right has been upheld repeatedly by the Supreme Court. We already knew that this government thought it was above the law, and apparently, nothing has changed.
The Hupacasath First Nation has filed an injunction with the Federal Court to stop the ratification of the FIPA. Brenda Sayers of the Hupacasath First Nation said:
First Nations were not consulted on the Canada China FIPPA. As First Nations with our Aboriginal Title, Rights and Treaty Rights, it is our duty to intervene for the sake of our children's futures....if ratified, FIPPA will immediately affect our Title and Rights by limiting our ability to exercise [our] jurisdiction in land use planning and regulation of our territory...
In my view, it is particularly disturbing to see that the government reached an agreement without even consulting with first nations, even though the agreement will have a direct impact on their rights.
In my region, there are six aboriginal communities. When we talk about natural resource development, the forestry and mining industries are often located on their ancestral land.
A company trying to set up a project is sitting down with first nations and is taking the time to consult with them. It is trying to develop a rare earth project. Rare earth materials are used in a lot of high-tech devices, especially batteries. Because of China's technology boom, those materials are highly sought after. If there is presumably one deposit in the region, there may be others.
Under this agreement, Chinese companies may appropriate or attempt to appropriate some of the rare earths. This would be done with no consultation of first nations, with no one even sitting down with first nations communities. We have to be very careful.
From the outset, this type of agreement indicates that Chinese investors are probably more interested in Canada's natural resources or natural resource industries. We must be very careful. The Idle No More movement came out of protests against a number of legislative measures in the budget that had been put in place without any consultation with first nations.
We must be extremely careful before we bring in an agreement that would once again fly in the face of Canada's Constitution. We have already done enough harm to first nations communities. We have imposed enough things on them without any consultation. Right off the bat I have a lot of concerns about this measure.
The government did not consult the provinces either, even though many legal experts are saying that this agreement will interfere in the provinces' exclusive jurisdictions. It did not consult Alberta, whose oil sands industry could be attractive to Chinese investors. It did not talk to Ontario or Quebec about the forestry and mining industries. It simply did not talk to the provinces. I find this very worrisome because this agreement directly affects them. I will come back to this.
Lastly, the government has not conducted any studies in this House or in committee. Trade agreements are generally subject to study in Parliament and then to a vote. Why is this agreement the exception to the rule? I have no idea.
When the text of the agreement was finally made public, the NDP called for a study in committee, but the Conservatives refused. We then asked for an emergency debate. Once again, the Conservatives refused. We have asked the government questions during question period and we have not even gotten an answer.
More than 80,000 Canadians sent messages to the government to ask it to conduct a study on the Canada-China FIPA. The trade agreement with Panama was examined, as was the agreement with Jordan. This agreement with China is much more complicated and restrictive for Canada, but the government is refusing to allow Parliament to study it. That is completely irresponsible and shameful.
This agreement will bind the two countries for the next 30 years. The public has a right to know what kind of disaster to expect with the current agreement. Right now I am 29 years old. This agreement would bind Canada and China until I am 59. That is more than twice my age right now, and during that time we will be stuck with an agreement that could present a lot of problems.
In addition to the fact that the process leaves much to be desired, the treaty itself is extremely problematic. We will not have the right to withdraw from this agreement for 30 years. No matter what happens, there is no way out of this agreement whatsoever. The treaty is written in such a way that the dispute settlement mechanism between an investor and the state allows foreign companies to sue for damages in foreign courts outside the Canadian justice system.
That means, for example, that if a Chinese company investing in Canada finds a new Canadian regulation to be too bothersome, that company can file a complaint in courts outside Canada's jurisdiction and seek damages from Canadian taxpayers.
To make matters worse, foreign investors will be able to sue the federal government over laws that are not even federal. A provincial government could implement a law and foreign investors would still be able to take the federal government to court. We could therefore be sued over laws that do no even fall directly under our jurisdiction.
Before I close, I would like to point out that, so far, every time Canada has taken other countries to court under similar agreements, it has lost. We are 0 for 17. Every time, we have lost. On the other hand, any time China or the United States has been taken to court, it has won its case.
Therefore, from the outset, this is a very risky undertaking. The government has refused to consult the public and is not respecting the rights of first nations. What is more, we must remember that this agreement directly targets natural resources. This is a big investment, and these resources belong to all Canadians.
I think we need to be careful. Right now, this agreement does not contain the legal provisions needed for Canadians to really support it. If it did, I would have supported it, but that is not the case right now. That is why I wanted to share my concerns about this agreement.