Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise for the first time on this historic day, our first day inside the new chamber inside West Block. It is quite a stunning, beautiful building. I am very thankful to all who had a hand in creating this space for all of us to come and serve in.
As international trade critic, I rose in the House months ago to ask the Prime Minister where the Liberal progressive trade agenda had gone. In signing the new NAFTA, we have given up so much, including damaging hits to supply management, the increased cost of drugs, and our only possible chance to get rid of the steel and aluminum tariffs, which are crippling.
The new NAFTA is not the win-win-win that the Liberals promised. I cannot get a straight answer from anyone on how they think this deal, in which we gave up so much, is going to benefit Canadians.
Farmers in Essex know that the Liberals, like the Conservatives before them, have thrown them under the tractor when it comes to trade. Dairy farmers have become the loser in every trade deal that we are signing—CETA, CPTPP and now the new NAFTA. After being told repeatedly by the Liberals that they would defend supply management, how can any farm family in Canada believe anything this Liberal government has to say to them? Not only did we give up market percentage, which we know will continue to be cracked open with the sunset clause—another thing the Liberals promised they would not agree to—but the Liberals somehow have managed to tie the hands of dairy farmers from exporting also. The new NAFTA actually sets export levels lower than last year's levels. How much more can farm families take from the current Liberal government?
It is shocking the way the Liberals have sold out our farm families. I know that the Liberal member will stand in this House and want us to believe that after selling our supply-managed farmers down the river, they will now provide them with some form of compensation. As farmers across Canada are saying, “We do not want the government's money for selling our farms; we want to keep their farms healthy and thriving.”
This model is not working, and Canadians are not happy. People in my riding of Essex want safe, local milk products, and they take pride in knowing where they come from. They know that farming is the backbone of rural economies. Without successful, thriving farms, we risk not just our food security, which is enough of an issue on its own, but the livelihoods of our small towns like the ones I represent in Essex, which have become economically tied to farming communities and families.
They also know that we are talking about the quality of milk products. We are looking for the little blue cow and making sure that the choices we make for our families are ones we can trust. Canadians do not want to wonder if the milk products have bovine growth hormone or antibiotics; they want to know that they are choosing safe local food.
I want to talk about the automotive sector for a minute, because I am sure that the government member will stand up after me and talk about how amazing this deal is for the auto sector. We have to look no further than Oshawa right now to know that no matter the language in a trade agreement, corporations will continue to do as they please, keeping the tilt of jobs from Canada and the United States toward Mexico.
After the devastating announcement at GM in Oshawa, Canadians are learning that no amount of language in free trade deals, including the new NAFTA, will stop corporations from leaving Canada and heading to Mexico, where they are taking advantage of a low-wage economy and a country that is not respecting the environment. Workers are left to fend for themselves, despite the fact that the Liberals will say that this agreement is so good for the automotive sector.
Where are the Liberals when auto workers are fighting for their jobs in Oshawa? They are certainly not on the front lines. We hear absolute crickets from them. As proud as they say they are about the new NAFTA, where is that pride in standing up for auto workers today who are out on the lines, fighting for their jobs, fighting for the community of Oshawa, and all of the impact that it will have across the province of Ontario?
These are just a few of the reasons this deal is not the win-win-win that was promised and why working people and farm families continue to be an afterthought in trade agreements that are nothing more than corporate sweetheart deals.
My question is this: Why do the Liberals and the Conservatives keep signing trade agreements that hurt the working class and farmers?