Mr. Speaker, the bill before us contains a number of items. First, the good news: This time, unlike the last agreement tabled here, the deadline between tabling an agreement and introducing the bill ratifying it in the House was met. That did not happen for the United Kingdom's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP. That bill is currently being studied by the Standing Committee on International Trade, but it was debated in the fall, if I am not mistaken. The deadline was not met in that case.
Ironically, when we tabled the bill that was defeated earlier, I was told by the members opposite that we did not need a bill like that because an official policy already existed. However, they had just violated that policy two days earlier with the protocol on the accession of the U.K. to the CPTPP.
In addition to that deadline, the bill would have allowed us to hold debates and instruct negotiators ahead of time on the political will of legislators. Honestly, Canada is one of the worst countries on the planet on this issue. In the United States, debates are held before treaties are signed. In the European Union, debates are held before treaties are signed. Not only is there a complete lack of transparency here in terms of political participation, but negotiations are also conducted in the utmost secrecy.