Debates of Nov. 19th, 2024

International Trade

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Madam Speaker, we just need to get the documents that we have been asking for; we can then move ahead. It is as simple as that. Second to that, if the government wants to, if it has legislation that is sitting on the shelf or whatever, there are certain components that it can actually release to the public. If it cannot physically table it here entirely, it can still table a lot of the different information about that legislation. It may not get here into the chamber right now, but it could actually get us ready to roll on this.

I could also bring up the fact that, if the legislation is in good order, we could actually have our critics work on it so that we could pass it expeditiously in the House. The government can do a lot of things, but I do not believe that the legislation is drafted and available. I have been waiting in the industry committee for amendments on Bill C-27 for almost half a year now, and we are still waiting for those amendments on its own government legislation.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Madam Speaker, to my hon. colleague, with his long history on this file and his tremendous understanding of our industry, one industry that I am concerned about is sugar beets and sugar in Canada. We are down 8%, and we now import from various sources that do not have the same environmental standards we do in Canada. They used to have sugar beet refining in Ontario. They now grow them in Ontario but ship them a long way away, to Michigan, on trucks.

What would his opinion be on trade, that we are getting cane syrup from somewhere else in some of the countries that would not have the standards for labour or the environment that we do in Canada?

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Madam Speaker, I actually appreciate this question. It is an interesting case. I am somewhat familiar with the sugar beet issue because it is part of how dependent we have become upon others for refining. We can start to look at some of the refining in Canada, for example, even the refining of rice.

The member brings up a really interesting point, which is that we are actually creating more production costs by having to ship products to the United States and deal with all kinds of different things. We do not have a good system in place to deal with it, and we could actually have the investment grow for refining, replacing manufacturing equipment and so forth. That is why I have been a strong supporter of the capital cost reduction allowance as part of manufacturing and making sure that the actual equipment gets the subsidy and not the company, or reduced taxation, so that the equipment gets there. It is harder to take the equipment away, and this actually allows for the increased thing. Sugar beet refining is a good example of several sectors out there that may seem single and small on their own, but when we start to lump them together, we are losing our impact.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Madam Speaker, here we are talking about forced labour and our supply chains. When we look at what is happening here in Canada, we had the report of the special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery. She cited that modern-day slavery is happening today in our temporary foreign worker program.

In my riding, there were some workers who were working for a local mill, and they were living in deplorable conditions. There was no running water, no sewage treatment and no flushing toilets. The horrific conditions they were in were unbelievable. When this was uncovered, the government did not send inspectors in to come and help them. It took amounts of pressure to actually get them the support they needed.

Finally, they were removed by a local non-profit that helped house them and give them support while they waited a couple of months to get open permits. These workers were subjected to horrific working and living conditions.

In Port Alberni, our community is reeling from what happened to these workers, and it is a human rights issue that needs to be addressed. Could my colleague express the flaws in the temporary foreign worker program and what is happening to workers here at home?

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Madam Speaker, it was the Harper administration that really exposed us to and brought in this foreign worker program in 2014. We saw some things that were being done by the operators in this program, which are the companies. They have often been some of the larger companies, but there have also been family-owned ones that were very wealthy. I have seen this in the agriculture sector around my neck of the woods, for sure. The response by the Conservatives and Liberals on this issue was to subsidize the corporations and these rich families with more money, living condition supports and other types of taxpayer supports to help offset the cruelty that was taking place on their almost plantation-like systems of bringing foreign workers in there.

The excuse was that they could not find any Canadians for these types of things. At the same time, we had lots of Canadians in my riding who were willing to go out there, but they had no form of transportation. The wages are low, the training is bad, and the investment is poor. The response has always been to provide more subsidies to the corporations and to the rich families. That has to end. Canadians want to work, but there has to be proper transportation and safety; they have to be paid a fair market wage. Those are the reasons we see issues of fairness depressed with regard to wages and working conditions. It has to end.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Madam Speaker, we know that my colleague from Windsor West is a long-standing advocate for human rights. I think he has been in the House since at least 2006.

I would like to hear his comments about the federal government's inaction and the image it is projecting on the world stage. Above all, I would like to know how fed up he is with the fact that this government keeps kicking the problem down the road, year after year, and refusing to take concrete action to stop forced child labour from making its way into federal government supply chains.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from the Bloc, who has also been part of the industry committee for many years, for raising this issue and other economic issues and how they relate to human rights.

He is absolutely correct; it is embarrassing not only on a level for our country but also for the House of Commons and the Senate. They pass phony laws that do not really actually affect what we say and do. When it comes to dealing with children, shame on us and shame on the other House for doing that; we actually use that as a shield to protect from real, good change. This has to end right now. We also have to make sure that we live up to our trade agreements with the United States and Mexico by pushing human rights and environmental rights in the agreement that we have. That is going to be more investment, not only in terms of fairness across the board for all of us, but also then being able to compete more internationally and to be stronger than ever before.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, to follow up on the question I posed, the member had indicated to just give the Conservatives what they want. However, the Conservatives want us to grab unredacted documents and hand them directly over to the RCMP. The RCMP has said it does not want that. The Auditor General of Canada has said they do not want that. Other legal experts have said that it should not happen.

Does the member believe that we should listen to the Conservative Party or the RCMP, Auditor General and other legal experts? Who would he listen to if he were me?

[An hon. member]

Oh, oh!

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, Carol Hughes]

There is an hon. member who is trying to answer questions, but he does not have the floor. I would ask him to wait until the appropriate time.

The hon. member for Windsor West.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Madam Speaker, we are talking about another issue, but I find it ironic. I was in this chamber when the Liberals, under their current leader, supported Stephen Harper over 110 times on confidence motions without getting a single thing from the Conservatives at that time. There was nothing on the environment, nothing on the economy, nothing on human rights and nothing at all for anybody on anything. Therefore, we will take no lectures from the Liberals in terms of their dilemma on how they deal with things. I saw the physical evidence as the Harper government tore down labour rights, tore down environmental issues and invested in things that were not good for Canadians. During that time, we had austerity issues get reversed, and the Conservatives actually ran up one of the largest deficits in Canadian history. All of that was done with the support of the Liberal Party unilaterally, with not a single condition over 110 votes. That is important to note because that is the real history of Canada.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Export Promotion]

Madam Speaker, respect for human rights, labour and the environment lies at the heart of our trade policies and our high-standard trade agreements. Canada's trade agreements prioritize Canadian values, focusing on workers' rights, environmental standards and opportunities for under-represented businesses like SMEs, women-owned businesses and indigenous enterprises.

It is the current government that signed the CPTPP, CETA and the new CUSMA agreement with our largest trading partners in both the U.S. and Mexico, and we will continue to create more jobs through trade as we continue to focus on opening new markets for Canadian businesses. More Canadian products shipped abroad means more good-paying Canadian jobs in communities across Canada.

I think it is safe to say that members of the House deplore the continued existence of forced labour in today's global supply chains. It is a priority that is very important to our government and that we have included in our budget to very clearly state that we would have legislation introduced by the end of this year. However, as we have seen, the Conservative members who continue to gum up the House, paralyzing the House and wasting millions of dollars are in fact blocking very important legislation like this from coming forward.

For those watching, it is important to note that the official opposition is in fact opposing the very legislation we were hoping to bring forward, by blocking and paralyzing the chamber using ill-informed tactics that no Canadians appreciate. Canadians want us to be able to work together to bring forward legislation that would help eradicate forced labour in our supply chains.

Forced labour traps workers in conditions of exploitation and abuse. It is a denial of human freedom and dignity. Forced labour is wholly incompatible with building a more prosperous, fairer global economy. It is a practice that undermines jobs and businesses where fundamental labour rights are respected. Enterprises that use and profit from forced labour not only deny the rights of their workers but also prevent Canadians and Canadian businesses from competing on a level playing field.

Forced labour contradicts the values that we as Canadians share with so many other people around the world. It is a practice that Canada and the rest of the international community must look to end. There is no question that eradicating forced labour is both an essential task and urgent one. I therefore welcome the opportunity to inform the House about actions the government is taking to maintain Canada's leadership in the global effort to eradicate forced labour and to uphold workers' rights.

Members of the House will recall that Canada introduced a forced labour import prohibition in 2020. The change was part of implementing our trade agreement with the United States and Mexico, CUSMA. The prohibition operates to stop goods from entering Canada that are mined, manufactured or produced wholly or in part by forced labour or compulsory child labour.

I am proud to say that Canada was the second country in the world, after only the United States, to implement a ban on forced labour imports. The import ban remains a vital part of our effort to eradicate forced labour from Canada's international supply chains. It is also important to delivering on the common goal of all the CUSMA partners to eliminate all forms of forced labour. That is why the government has committed to introducing legislation this year that would make Canada's ban even stronger.

In October, the Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development launched public consultations on potential measures to strengthen the import ban. As part of this process, the government has published and is seeking feedback on concrete options to enhance the ban. The options include a possible requirement for importers of publicly designated at-risk goods to provide additional documentation on the supply chain journey of those goods when seeking to bring them into Canada. In short, this would place an onus on importers to demonstrate why the ban should not apply to any designated at-risk goods they wish to bring into Canada.

The government shares the ambition of members of the House to strengthen Canada's forced labour import ban, but at the same time the government recognizes the importance of consulting with all Canadians to ensure that any new measures would be effective and fit for purpose while maintaining Canada's economic competitiveness. We look forward to hearing from Canadian consumers, businesses and other stakeholders through the consultation process launched earlier this fall and to moving forward once their voices have been heard.

The government is committed to protecting labour rights and promoting responsible business practices in Canada's international supply chains. I know that all members of the House share these goals, including the goal of the eradication of forced labour in Canadian supply chains. The government looks forward to working with members of the House to adopt legislation to strengthen the ban and to give Canadians greater confidence that goods imported into Canada are not tainted by forced labour. My hope is the Conservatives and the Bloc end their silly tactics to jam the House so we can bring legislation forward to fight forced labour and support Canadians.

As we heard from both the RCMP and the Auditor General, there are processes in place for members of the House to bring forward concerns, and the Speaker has ruled on this as well, to further study the issue at committee. As we have heard, members opposite rightfully raise concerns of forced labour, and I hope they end their delay tactics in the House to seize up the floor so we can bring forward legislation on forced labour, which is very important.

We mentioned very clearly in our budget that we want to be able to bring forward legislation to make sure we eradicate forced labour from our supply chains. We know it impacts Canadian businesses. We want businesses to remain competitive, but again, it is very important for those watching at home to know that we are able to table and introduce the legislation while hearing the concerns of the Conservatives and the Bloc, but it is also important we bring forward legislation that supports Canadians and ends forced labour in our supply chains.

[Yves Perron, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Madam Speaker, my colleague began his speech by claiming that the Liberals' hands are tied because the Conservatives are gumming up the House. However, this promise is more than one month old. The House has only been paralyzed for a month. The Liberals promised in budget 2023 that they would take action by the end of 2023, but they did not do it. They made the same promise in budget 2024, which was in March, not September, but again, they did not keep it. I hope they will spare us their fake excuses.

My colleague seems to be saying that because the opposition is holding up the House, there is nothing the Liberals can do. When the opposition's privilege motion eventually ends, do the Liberals have a bill ready to put forward before Christmas? Time is short. I have a hard time believing that that they have a bill ready and waiting. People should be careful about making excuses.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Madam Speaker, I had hoped to answer the question in French; I am working on my French.

The member's question is an important one. When we talk about forced labour, something that has come up in our international trade committee from the Bloc member is the importance of the legislation. I asked the member at committee, as well as outside the committee, whether, if this was so important and such a high priority for him, he would commit to ending what is happening in the House of Commons, the delay tactics, so we can ensure that we bring the important legislation forward.

While there is more to do, our government already has a number of measures in place to address forced labour, including enforceable labour provisions in free trade agreements and providing assistance to partner countries. We all know this is a very complex issue that transcends international borders. We will continue to work with all colleagues here and of course abroad to introduce new requirements and enforce existing bans on goods made with forced labour. As I said in my speech, there have been consultations going on over the last couple of months with the businesses, industries and stakeholders that have a very important role to play in the conversation.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Madam Speaker, in the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, there is a provision to prevent the use of forced labour in supply chains. The United States enacted strict and bold legislation to do this four years ago. It has seized goods worth $3.62 billion because it took it seriously. The Liberal government has not taken it seriously. I know the Bloc Québécois cares about it and I know the NDP cares about it.

The Liberals do not care, because they have seized zero goods, not a single dollar's worth of goods in four years. They talk about some proposed legislation and say that they are doing this and doing that, but what they have done has accomplished nothing. How can the member stand here and justify the U.S.'s seizing 3.62 billion dollars' worth of goods and the corrupt Liberal government's seizing zero?

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Madam Speaker, the member opposite and I sat on the trade committee together, and I enjoy working with him.

I think it is important to note that CBSA has intercepted shipments; it has done due diligence. Of course there is always more to do and nothing is ever perfect. I think it is very important that in addition to shipment interceptions, we withdraw trade commissioner services that support businesses in trading, should they be found to be using forced labour. When awarding contracts, the Department of Public Services and Procurement Canada requires suppliers to agree to terms and conditions prohibiting the use of forced labour.

As I said, we are working across government and with international partners to ensure that Canadian businesses at home and abroad are not involved in supply chains involving forced labour. We expect Canadian companies around the world to respect human rights and to operate at the highest ethical standards. I think it is very important to go back to the point that we continue working with our partners, including CBSA, so we can eradicate forced labour throughout our supply chain.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Madam Speaker, I have enjoyed working with the parliamentary secretary on the international trade committee for the past while. I know he is in favour of the motion here today because he voted for the original letter that we sent to the government.

The member mentioned responsible enterprise in his speech. I just wonder whether he could comment on the fact that the commissioner for responsible enterprise has been before us in committee twice, and that both times she has said that she needs more power to do her job. Nobody is sending her work, because she cannot do it. She needs the power to get documents and testimony from companies, and she does not have that power. I want to know whether the member supports giving her that power so we can have responsible enterprise from Canadians around the world.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Madam Speaker, I do miss seeing the hon. member across the way at trade committee.

It is very important that he mentions CORE and the mandate we have given it. I know that the ombudsperson has active investigations going on with companies that are operating around the world. Again, as I said, we expect Canadian enterprises and businesses that are operating anywhere in the world to make sure that they respect human rights and environmental and labour practices. Yes, we do have a standard to keep here in the House, but we also expect our businesses and enterprises operating around the world to respect that standard and ensure that Canadian labour processes, environmental processes and others are followed.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Madam Speaker, I listened intently to the comments that the parliamentary secretary shared, and I appreciated the approach he was taking because I do believe that within the House of Commons we have important work to do, which includes government legislation and private members' legislation. Private member's bills have not been able to advance because the Conservatives refuse to put our country and our communities first. The Leader of the official opposition has silenced 18 Conservative members from even advancing housing issues and supporting municipalities. I am talking about fewer than 15% of members on their benches who are actually supporting municipalities by ensuring that their communities have adequate housing.

Conservatives will choose Conservative partisan politics before they will choose Canada. That is an approach we saw under former prime minister Stephen Harper, and we will see it happen again, so I hope Canadians are paying attention. Today the Bloc is defending the Conservative approach, which I find disappointing. I do usually appreciate the approach the Bloc members take because they tend to advance policy rather than partisan politics, but I know they want to divide our country. I do not stand for that. The NDP showed clearly in the by-election that it will also choose partisan politics.

Why is it that we are not able to advance legislation on the topic? I believe it is a really important topic, so I would like to hear the member's comments.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Madam Speaker, the hon. member mentioned private member's bills. Bill S-211, which was brought forward to the House, brought up the very important issue from my colleague from Scarborough—Guildwood about forced labour . The member has a very good point: With the Conservatives' teaming up with other opposition parties gumming up the House, we are not able to bring forward important private member bills to ensure that we are able to support Canadians or even speak of legislation that can be tabled in the House, should the Conservatives end their delay tactics and filibusters and wasting millions of dollars by gumming up the House and delivering the same speech over and over again.

For the people watching at home, I will say that I get emails saying, “I heard that speech already. Why are we still talking about that?” I think it is important that the Conservatives follow the RCMP and the Auditor General's recommendations, because there is a process in place and the Speaker has ruled on the matter, so we can continue bringing forward legislation and members can bring forward their private member's bills.

[Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Bloc, Terrebonne, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Waterloo for reminding us that, at the end of the day, if we really want to protect Quebeckers and give them access to the best possible goods, independence is the best solution.

In the meantime, I will talk about my colleague's speech. I think it is extremely disingenuous to claim that the reason the government has not yet delivered on its promise to introduce legislation to clean up supply chains is because the House is paralyzed. We know that the real reason the House is paralyzed is because the government refuses to hand over the documents to the House.

I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Madam Speaker, we are ready to get to work for Canadians. I hope, as I said before, the Conservatives end their delay tactics and follow the processes in place. It is not up to MPs to talk down the RCMP or the Auditor General. It is important that we follow the process brought forward.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Prince Albert.

After hearing the parliamentary secretary's speech, I thought it would be fun for us to take a little trip back in time to understand how we got here and why Canada has such an abysmal track record on stopping goods made with forced labour from entering Canada. It is as a result of the corrupt Liberal government.

I have the former minister of labour's mandate letter from 2021, almost four years ago. The mandate letter says:

With the support of the Minister of Public Safety, the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, introduce legislation to eradicate forced labour from Canadian supply chains....

That was in 2021. I just checked and it is 2024. No, we have not been asleep for these past three years. We have just watched the corrupt, incompetent Liberal government do absolutely nothing on this file. Why would the government not do anything? Our largest trading partner, the United States, took bold action right away and has had remarkable success in seizing goods made with forced labour. Canada, on the other hand, has seized one shipment and then released it. That is the Liberal track record on forced labour.

We have to ask ourselves why. Why have the Liberals not done anything about it? Is it because, perhaps, Beijing-controlled companies donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Trudeau Foundation? That could be it. Could it be, according to journalist Sam Cooper, that members of the Liberal cabinet have been co-opted by Beijing influence? That could be one of the reasons. The result of this has been an embarrassment, and our trading partners are taking notice, including the United States.

We have an issue that has not gone away. In fact, in October 2022, a mere two years ago, the former minister of labour was at committee and I presented what was going on: The United States had taken bold action. It published an entities list that listed dozens and dozens of Chinese corporations that it knew were engaging in the use of Uyghur forced labour. Those entities were banned from bringing goods into the United States.

I asked the minister why the Liberals did not just copy it. If they cannot do the work themselves, why would they not just take it? I offered to hand it to the minister. I said we could cut down on goods coming in with forced labour right now. It would take five minutes. Did the Liberals do it? No, of course they did not. They did not use the United States' entities list.

What has been the result? The United States has now seized 3.62 billion dollars' worth of goods that were made with forced labour. Over the same period of time, how many goods made with forced labour has the corrupt Liberal government seized? Does anyone want to hazard a guess? Do any of the Liberal members want to hazard a guess? I will tell them how much: zero, nothing. The Liberals seized one shipment and had to turn it back.

One might ask why, if the Liberals went through the step of seizing these goods, they would ship them back. That is an interesting question. It comes down to the rules that Canada adopted to allow CBSA to seize goods. Those in the United States know this is tough, so they said that if a shipment is suspected of being made with forced labour, whoever is importing or shipping the goods would have to prove that they were not made with forced labour. The onus, the burden, goes back to companies, and of course, since most of them cannot prove it, the U.S. seized 3.62 billion dollars' worth of goods.

What did the corrupt Liberal government do for the standard? It set the standard that the CBSA has to prove the goods were made with forced labour, which, with the resources the CBSA has, it cannot do. The CBSA seized one shipment, but could not prove that it was made with forced labour, so it was allowed to come into the country. The Liberals are actively allowing this to happen. They have taken no steps.

The minister was obligated in his mandate letter to introduce legislation. It has been almost four years, and the minister has not introduced a single piece of legislation to cut down on this. The government has not changed the standard that it forced the CBSA to adopt, which does not make it easier to seize goods made with forced labour. As a result, the CBSA has seized nothing. We know that goods coming into Canada are made with forced labour, and I think Canadians would be outraged if they knew they might be buying goods made with forced labour.

Forced labour is a despicable way to produce goods, and there have been videos and exposés on how this is happening, particularly in the Xinjiang region of China. For the Liberals to have done nothing is, quite frankly, disgusting. They now stand here and hide behind their refusal to provide documents from the green slush fund, as if this is the problem. They have had four years to do something. The debate on their failure to produce documents to show their corruption has been going on for four weeks, but this is suddenly the problem. This shows how bereft of a moral compass the government is.

I will go back to why this has happened. Why is Canada not doing anything under the Liberals to seize these goods? Is it because Beijing-controlled companies donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Trudeau Foundation? I do not know, but it looks a little fishy. Is it because there have been exposés by journalists who have made it very clear that there is a lot of influence from Beijing in the Liberal Party's cabinet?

When we look at the results of this, we are led to the conclusion that, as Shakespeare said, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” There is something rotten in the Liberal government. It has been woefully inadequate in its response to the forced labour issue, and there are serious consequences to that.

The United States is our largest trading partner. Canada is a trading nation. It is in our free trade agreement with the United States that we have to eliminate forced labour from our supply chains. The government has not done that. It has not done a single thing in four years, and there will be consequences.

A giant report was just delivered to the United States Senate on forced labour in supply chains, and guess where the U.S. is point the finger. It is at Canada and Mexico. It is despicable that the government has done nothing to crack down on this while Chinese corporations abuse Uyghurs in forced labour camps and send goods to Canada with no fear of consequences. The government's lack of action is disgusting enough, but now it is putting our trading relationship with the United States in jeopardy. Why is it doing that?

There is something very rotten going on with the Liberal government on this issue. As I said at committee to the minister, the government could take quick steps right away. It could adopt the entities list that the United States has published. The United States government did its due diligence. It looked into companies that are known to produce things in the Xinjiang region of China or have supply chains that have goods that come from there, and it said these entities could not export goods to the United States. The government could just copy and paste that. I know the government has a hard time doing anything and copying and pasting would be so much work, but that is a simple way to right away crack down on the issue. It has not; it has refused. Canadians should wonder why.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, talk about being misleading. The member is full of something that I cannot say because it would be unparliamentary.

The member tried to give a false impression that the government has done nothing, but what would he say about the the passing of Bill S-211? As a direct result of that legislation, not hundreds but thousands of companies are now registered, raising the profile of the issue so that we can bring forward legislation before the end of the year. Contrast that to Stephen Harper, the member's idol. He did zip, nothing. Oh, I am sorry. Harper's government signed a secret trade agreement with China.

I wonder if the member has the intestinal fortitude to apologize for misleading the House.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Madam Speaker, the one who should apologize is the one who gave the unhinged rant that was just delivered.

Yes, a private member's bill was passed, which requires a voluntary website where they have to maybe disclose whether or not they think they might have forced labour in their supply chains. Look, I am sorry, but the bill is a joke.