Mr. Speaker, Canada is firmly committed to the principle that trade and investment liberalization and environmental protection go hand in hand and is advancing a progressive approach to trade. Canada believes that commitments to high levels of environmental protection are an important part of all trade agreements, including NAFTA. Such commitments to good environmental governance in our trade agreements can help improve conditions for Canadian investment by promoting stable, predictable, and transparent environmental regulatory frameworks and institutions in partner countries.
The North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, an existing side agreement to NAFTA, clearly reflects the importance that, for a long time now, Canada has attached to strong environmental provisions. Since 1994, this agreement has served as an important mechanism to guarantee our firm commitment to a high level of environmental protection and provide a forum for multilateral North American environmental co-operation.
As we move toward modernizing NAFTA, we see an opportunity to strengthen the environmental provisions under the agreement to ensure environmental standards continue to be upheld as part of our trade and investment relationship. One of Canada's core objectives for these negotiations is that NAFTA can be made more progressive. This includes integrating high-ambition and enforceable environmental provisions into NAFTA, which fully supports efforts to address climate change and other global environmental challenges.
Canada is seeking commitments for NAFTA countries to maintain high levels of environmental protection, as well as provisions to ensure domestic environmental laws are both effectively enforced and not weakened to encourage trade and investment.
Canada is seeking to secure progressive elements such as those achieved in the Canada–European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, including provisions that seek to reaffirm the state's right to regulate in the public interest and provisions promoting the trade in environmental goods and services.
We announced the establishment of the NAFTA advisory council on the environment last August. The 10-member council brings together prominent Canadians with a variety of backgrounds, such as politics, law, and Indigenous groups. This expert council includes former Quebec premier, Pierre-Marc Johnson; former British Columbia premier, Gordon Campbell; former Saskatchewan NDP finance minister, Janice MacKinnon; and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president, Natan Obed.
The council members are supporting the advancement of our government's progressive trade agenda by serving in their personal capacity to advise the Minister of Environment and Climate Change as Canada looks to strengthen environmental protections in a modernized NAFTA.