Mr. Speaker, my question to the Liberal government back in February centred on the continued lack of an economic impact study regarding the proposed trans-Pacific partnership. Such a study would provide greater clarity for Canadians on how this massive investment trade deal would impact workers, our communities, and our economy as a whole. It would also help guide the work of the Standing Committee on International Trade, which will embark on a trip across western Canada next week to hear from a select few witnesses about the impacts of the TPP.
There are some studies we can look to now for guidance. An independent study from Tufts University estimates that the TPP would cost 58,000 jobs in Canada while increasing inequality. The study finds the deal would make a negligible difference on GDP: just 0.28% after 10 years.
Many have raised concerns over the TPP's impact on key areas of Canadian public interest, including the auto industry, supply-managed agricultural sectors, intellectual property rights, foreign takeovers of Canadian companies, privacy rights and Internet freedoms, and the affordability of prescription medications.
While some sectors may benefit from lowered tariffs and greater access to certain markets, the TPP's negative impacts on Canadian industry are evidenced by the Conservative government offering $5 billion in compensation to the auto and dairy sectors for the losses they are expected to suffer; compensation on which the Liberal government has so far turned its back.
The fact of the matter is that the TPP is a bad deal. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz went so far as to call it the worst trade deal ever. As I outlined earlier today in question period, Mr. Stiglitz warns that the TPP would erode the rights of workers, kill Canadian jobs, and reverse the principle of polluter pays, making governments pay billions for any attempt to protect the environment.
The Conservatives negotiated the deal under an unprecedented veil of secrecy, and they concluded the deal in the dying days of their government, just two weeks before Canadians voted the Conservatives out of office.
When the Liberals were in opposition, they demanded that the government produce an analysis of the costs and benefits of the agreement on each sector. No such economic impact study has ever been produced, not for the TPP, and I would also point out, not for CETA. The fact that this did not happen before Canada signed onto this deal is ludicrous.
Therefore, I rise in this place tonight to ask this. Will the Liberals live up to their own standards and present an economic impact study of the TPP?
The government must release an analysis of the deal's impacts and come clean with Canadians about the costs of signing onto the Conservatives' TPP.