Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to Bill C-18.
Bill C-18 is a very important piece of legislation. It is critical at this moment in our history for Canada's economic growth and prosperity, and for making sure that we are able to create the important jobs necessary for Canadians from coast to coast to coast.
Before I get into some of the substantive parts of this legislation, I want to take this opportunity to thank some people for their important work in getting us to this point. Of course, the Minister of International Trade has been very active in making sure that this agreement was concluded. He was part of the signing ceremony, along with the Prime Minister, with our Indonesian administration counterparts.
There are a number of officials from Global Affairs Canada who were on the negotiating team, and who worked for multiple years to negotiate and finalize this really important agreement in the best interest of Canada. I want to take a moment to thank all those officials for their hard work and for their service to our country.
I want to acknowledge all the members of the Standing Committee on International Trade. It is a real pleasure to work with them, and I mean from all three parties, including the government side of the committee. It was a very co-operative committee with a co-operative process whereby we could work together. We were able to share ideas with each other. There were some changes: As members can see from the report stage, some minor changes were added to the bill, and it all happened in a thoughtful, consultative way. It was Parliament working at its best in committee, and it demonstrated how working together for the well-being of Canadians, for our own constituents, is extremely important.
I also want to extend my gratitude to the Indonesian ambassador here in Canada, His Excellency Muhsin Syihab, who recently arrived in Canada. He has a lot of knowledge about Indonesia, of course, and is keen to learn about Canada. He is a very enthusiastic champion of this legislation. I thank him and look forward to working with him in terms of implementing this agreement, once it has passed in the House and in the other place and becomes law, so that we can create those opportunities for Canadian companies in the Indonesian market.
It has been said during second reading, and we heard this during committee, but it is worth repeating how important this Canada-Indonesia comprehensive economic partnership agreement is, which is affectionately referred to as the “Canada-Indonesia CEPA”. It represents an important milestone in Canada's trade engagement in the Indo-Pacific region. It was concluded in December 2024 and signed, as I mentioned earlier, in September 2025.
This agreement seeks to deepen economic ties with Indonesia, which is a nation of nearly 280 million people. It is a big country in the Indo-Pacific region and had a thriving economy of $1.9 trillion in 2024, so imagine how beneficial a bilateral comprehensive economic agreement with a country that size could be for Canada. That is what we have been able to accomplish through this very important agreement.
The agreement is quite focused. It is also quite expansive in terms of the breadth and scope for Canadians. As I mentioned, it is a fairly comprehensive trade agreement that addresses market access for goods, services and investments, and includes provisions on small and medium-sized enterprises, labour, environment and women's economic empowerment. It is truly a model agreement, when it comes to free trade agreements, in terms of how modern trade agreements can be developed. Canada, working along with our friends from Indonesia, is able to set the stage for it.
The committee process was a really positive one. We got to hear from many stakeholders who represented various diverse backgrounds, and they spoke to us in support of this agreement. The two who really came to the fore for me were from our agriculture and agri-food sector. Their enthusiastic support for this was quite remarkable. Whether we were talking about the cattle or pork industries or speaking of the pulse and soy industries, they were all really keen for this agreement, because for them, this agreement would give preferable market access to a large economy. They would see Canadian exports rising significantly in an already robust market because of the preferential treatment that they would receive under the agreement. They were really keen, and they really stressed to all of us that we should try to conclude and pass the ratification of the agreement through Parliament as quickly as possible.
As such, I want to take this opportunity to thank them and all of those important associations. I particularly thank all our farmers, who work so hard day in and day out to make sure that we are producing world-class food, not only for Canadians but to sell around the world. I think they realized that Indonesia is a growing market, economy and population, and that Canada can be selling that sustainable, good-quality food to Indonesians.
The other sector that was really highlighted during the committee process was the nuclear sector. A representative from a nuclear company, AtkinsRéalis, spoke about the opportunities the agreement would create around energy security and the ability to export Canadian technology when it comes to safe, reliable, stable nuclear technology. As members know, CANDU is a Canadian innovation. It is remarkable in terms of creating energy around the world, not only in Canada, and companies like AtkinsRéalis are quite keen to be engaging with countries like Indonesia. The agreement would allow them to do that on a preferential basis and to find ways to sell that technology. This would mean not only helping Indonesia to have more energy security and to meet its net-zero targets by 2050, but also, and most importantly, creating really well-paying jobs for Canadians.
In my province of Ontario alone, we have one of the world's best supply chains for nuclear energy, and if we are able to open more export markets for that technology, it will only mean more jobs for Canadians. This agreement would create that opportunity and allow for Canadian companies like AtkinsRéalis to sell in places like Indonesia.
The last point I want to talk about is why this agreement is important for the work that we are doing as a country in trade diversification. I think this House spends a lot of time talking about the challenges we are going through, like the protectionism that we are seeing right now, especially as it relates to our American partners. Our effort is to diversify our trade. Our effort is to double our non-U.S. exports in the next 10 years. That is the goal that the Prime Minister has set. This agreement is a really important example of how we can do this, and not only that, but it is an opening for us to finalize our agreement with the ASEAN countries, which Indonesia is part of. Other major countries, like the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam are also ASEAN countries, and this agreement would set the template in terms of the work that we need to do.
I want to thank the deputy minister of trade from Indonesia, who was instrumental in this. When I met with her in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the ASEAN ministerial summit, she committed that she would make sure that ASEAN also finalizes an agreement this year, in 2026, so that we can keep building stronger economic ties with other countries and create well-paying jobs for Canadians from coast to coast to coast.