Madam Speaker, I have three brief points of follow-up for the parliamentary secretary.
With respect to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, I pointed out explicitly that those opportunities already existed for Canadian business because the AIIB has an open procurement policy. We still have not heard from the government as to why we joined the AIIB and spent over $400 million of taxpayer money to do so when businesses already had the opportunity to apply for contracts. Was the government unaware of the open procurement policy of the AIIB? Did it not do its due diligence at that basic level? Why did we put $400 million plus into this?
With respect to engagement, we heard some great testimony today at the Canada-China committee about how engagement is important and must be a means to an end, not an end in and of itself, that is, we engage with other countries in order to advance our values and interests, but we do not see engagement as an end in and of itself. That is very important.
On the issue of extradition, there was a joint communiqué issued that said, “The two sides determined that the short-term objectives for Canada-China cooperation on security and rule of law are to: start discussions on an Extradition Treaty and a Transfer of Offenders Treaty as well as other related matters”.
I would like to know why that joint communiqué was sent, given what the parliamentary secretary said.