Mr. Speaker, a government that does not consult is a poor government. A government that does not listen is an incompetent government. A government that misleads Canadians is a dangerous government. All three of those apply to the Conservative government.
My hon. colleague talked about counting. People are counting. They are counting the trade deficit under the government. When the Conservatives came to power in 2006, we had a trade surplus of $17 billion. Today, after six and a half years of the Conservatives being in power, we have a trade deficit of $67 billion. That is the record of the present government. We have a record merchandise trade deficit approaching $100 billion. The percentage of our exports that are made of raw or barely processed items is going up and the percentage of our exports of refined or value-added is going down. The consequences of the Conservative trade policy are disastrous for our country, and my hon. friend can only respond by misleading and spin.
My colleague keeps saying that we have open arbitration. I am going to read again from the FIPA under Public Access to Hearings and Documents. Article 28 states:
Where...a disputing Contracting Party determines that it is in the public interest to do so...hearings held under this Part shall be open to the public
Does my colleague not understand that if a contracting party decides it is not in the public interest to do so, it can decline to have hearings in public? If my friend thought this deal was so good, and this is a government agreement, why did the Conservatives not bring it forward for debate in this chamber, which we are doing here today, instead of attacking the opposition?