Mr. Speaker, Adam Smith is the father of modern economics, and he understood a timeless truth: Trade is wealth. When we talk about trade and trading nations, we can say that trading nations do best when they sell the things they produce the best and trade for the rest.
Canada is a trading nation, or it should be. We sit, as Canadians, with the most natural resources per capita of all nations on the planet. Canadians should be rich from that. We are third among countries with the most oil in the world and sixth in terms of natural gas. We have all the things the world needs for batteries and critical minerals. We are number one with potash. We have some of the best mines but, right now, Canadians are broke because the trade deals that the government has put together have been terrible for workers, for paycheques and for Canadians.
We now face a bigger problem with the Americans. Americans smell weakness in the Prime Minister and the government. After nine years of fleecing the government, we have a GDP per capita in Canada that is $32,000 less per worker, per Canadian, than our American counterparts have. We have seen half a trillion dollars of investment go south. We have lost 90,000 softwood lumber jobs as we have been mired in bad trade deals.
When we have a weak Prime Minister and a weak government, it means that we need a strong opposition to formulate a trade partnership with our trade committee. That way, we can study the upcoming CUSMA trade deal to make sure that we are tackling the weakness of the Prime Minister versus the strong president-elect coming into the U.S. We can then ensure that we have strength from the Parliament, because we certainly do not have it from the government.
We are asking for this trade committee to reconvene so that we can bring forth many witnesses to study the effects that a Donald Trump government would have on Canada, Canadians and workers.
I am going to read an amendment to our motion today.
I move:
That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word “That” and substituting the following: “the second report of the Standing Committee on International Trade, presented on Thursday, October 27, 2022, be not now concurred in but that it be recommitted to the Committee for further consideration, including in relation to the protection of Canadian jobs, especially unionized jobs, in the electric vehicle, softwood lumber and other sectors, given the announced policy of the incoming United States administration of President-elect Donald Trump to impose 25 percent tariffs on all Canadian exports to the United States, provided that, for the purposes of this study:
(a) the holders of the following offices recognized in law, howsoever styled, shall each be ordered to appear, individually, as witnesses, for at least two hours each, at the prescribed dates and times, for which the Committee shall be instructed to meet at those times:
(i) the Minister of Labour on Monday, January 6, 2025, at 2 p.m.,
(ii) the Minister of Industry on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, at 11 a.m.,
(iii) the Deputy Minister of Citizenship and Immigration on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, at 2 p.m.,
(iv) the Minister for International Trade on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, at 11 a.m.,
(v) the Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, at 2 p.m.,
(vi) the Minister of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, January 9, 2025, at 11 a.m.,
(vii) the President of the Canada Border Services Agency on Thursday, January 9, 2025, at 2 p.m.,
(viii) the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration on Monday, January 13, 2025, at 11 a.m.,
(ix) the Ambassador of Canada to the United States of America on Monday, January 13, 2025, at 2 p.m.,
(x) the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, at 11 a.m.,
(xi) the National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the Prime Minister on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, at 2 p.m.,
(xii) the Minister of Finance on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, at 11 a.m.,
(xiii) the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, at 2 p.m., and
(xiv) the Prime Minister on Thursday, January 16, 2025, at 11 a.m.;
(b) the Committee shall hold such other additional meetings, as may be necessary, during the weeks of January 6 and 13, 2025, to hear from stakeholders, experts, union leaders, premiers or other representatives of provincial and territorial governments, and other witnesses who are proposed by the members of the Committee; and
(c) if a new or increased tariff is imposed by the United States government during the week of January 20, 2025, (i) the Committee shall meet within 24 hours of any such announcement, and (ii) the Committee may order the re-attendance of any minister named in paragraph (a), as the Committee sees fit.