It is black and white. As if anyone believes that. I hope Conservatives do not believe it themselves because it is such a simplistic analysis of the world that it really defies credibility.
It is kind of like someone saying, “This simple world you live in is based on only two things: you are for investment and you are for jobs, and that is it. There is nothing else.” The fact is if they are for jobs, they have to be for corporate social responsibility. If they are for investment, they have to have clear and transparent rules. That is where we come in.
That is our job, to provide the sound framework for business to do its work, here and overseas, and for investment to make sure that we are providing the clear rules that everyone can get behind, so there is fairness for investment. Investors do not like instability, and when the rules are changing on a regular basis, as we have seen with the government on temporary foreign workers, they do not like that. Right now, business is very angry with the government, because it went from opening everything up for temporary foreign workers to throwing all this red tape at it. I am sure the Conservatives are hearing from business in their ridings, because they have swung from one end to the other, seemingly for business, and it does not make sense.
When I look at the approach that the government is taking on this bill, it reminds me of someone trying to clean up a mess afterwards, and not looking at preventing a crisis. The fact is that everyone was aware of what was going on in places like Libya. We had Canadian companies doing business abroad in Burma; I remember one of the first files I dealt with when was I elected had to do with what was going on in Burma. We pushed hard for the government to bring in the special economic action rules against Burma. The government finally did, but it did not go back to deal with the present investment in Burma. Companies were still operating in Burma after the government brought in the special economic action measures. It is indicative of the government that it is constantly behind; it is like it is constantly living in the past and not dealing with the future.
In reading the actual bill, no one can argue that the people who are behind this are trying to plug loopholes by eliminating the exceptions previously available, and adding national jurisdiction, which will remove the uncertainty that business is concerned about.
I think we will hear about the offences at committee. We have to start with something, and we can look at that. There is a question that charities have about delivering humanitarian aid, and that is a question we will have to deal with at committee.
If we look at the approach that the government started off with, it was, “How do we deal with our reputation abroad? How do we deal with the fact that there are these loopholes?” That was a fair place to start. I do agree with the parliamentary secretary on the need to give the RCMP the tools they need to enforce legislation. That was not the case before, and I see some positive movement with that.
However, we also have to look at the other side. If we only do this and do not do anything else, have we actually dealt with the core issue? The core issue, as I said at the beginning of my speech, is about transparency and looking to the future, not living in the past.
This bill simply recognizes something that has been around for far too long, but the government will not have actually brought us into the present-day environment of business and international relations unless it goes further, embracing full transparency and, when we go to the G8, ensuring that we get behind the initiatives of full transparency in the extractive industries. If we do not do that, we will continue to live in the past.
The NDP will push for future legislation that will actually make this something seen as a minimum, and for us to actually get on, like the rest of the world has, with full disclosure, full sunlight as my colleague from the Liberal Party has suggested, and see that Canada can be proud of its record on the international stage. That will be good for Canadians, it will be good for investment and will be good all around.