Gerald Keddy

[Business of Supply, April 18th, 2013]

Seventeen.

[Business of Supply, April 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I do not want to say it is as simple as politics. I do not want to say that it is opposition for the sake of opposition. However, I think the public can draw its own conclusions.

The hon. member is absolutely right in that there have been a number of FIPAs signed since 1990 and 11 since we formed government in 2006. There have been 17 opportunities with opposition days by the official opposition alone, not including the Liberal Party, to debate this in the House. Therefore, it is 17th on the NDP's list of priorities but suddenly it is a priority today.

These FIPAs are all very similar. They all offer the same basic end game, which is protection for Canadian investors in China and protection for Chinese investors in Canada. There is nothing untoward about that. There is no ability for the Chinese to take over the Canadian economy. There is no ability for them to destroy the environment. All of this really is fearmongering and goes back to the basic anti-trade roots of the official opposition.

[Business of Supply, April 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know why the hon. member asked the question if he wants to answer it himself.

The first part of the member's diatribe was on the trade deficit. Let us just look at this for a moment.

Canada's trade deficits over the past few years were the result of a relatively weak global economy. Maybe the hon. member is an isolationist and thinks that we exist without the rest of the world and that we do not build things and make products with other countries, but the reality is that we do.

We have a weak global economy and a strong Canadian economy compared to all of our trading partners. The recession hit the United States, which is the main source of our trade surplus, and the rest of the world harder than Canada therefore weakening the demand for Canadian exports to the rest of the world but leaving Canadian demand for imports largely unaffected due to our strong domestic economy.

I would ask the member the same question I asked the official opposition. Why does he support reducing tariffs for Chinese investors and Chinese companies on products coming into Canada, putting us at a disadvantage?

[Business of Supply, April 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, our job is to table the treaty in this place and it is the opposition's job to bring it forward for debate. I have been counting and it has been 17 days. This is 17th on the opposition's list of priorities.

My colleague made a statement about the trade deficit. Everybody recognizes that there is a trade deficit. We have 72 countries on a preferential tariff list. We have decided to take away that preferential tariff list because those countries are no longer emerging economies; they are mature economies. The official opposition does not want to do that, and that would lead to a trade deficit.

[Business of Supply, April 18th, 2013]

I hear a lot of squealing from the opposition benches, but they are all the same format and basically all the same agreement. None of those were worthy of debate, but somehow this one is different.

Now let us expand on the debate a little further. It was tabled in the House on September 26, 2012. This is the 17th opposition day, not the first or the second or the third, that the official opposition has had to debate this treaty. I will forgive the Liberals on this one because they said from the beginning that they are going to support the treaty, so they do not need to debate it in this House. However, there is an opportunity to debate this treaty in this House. This is the opportunity. It is the 17th item on the NDP list of priorities. That is what we are dealing with here, nothing more and nothing less.

Let us just stop for a second, and look at how this treaty unfolds and how it would actually work for Canadian investors. The key message with this foreign investment promotion and protection agreement, and with all the rest of them, is that it is about rules. It is about rules-based investing, in the same way as we have rules for rules-based trading. Anytime we have rules, we know exactly what the parameters are, we know exactly what we are getting into when we make an investment and we can make that investment with some surety.

We made a promise to Canadians when we formed government in 2006 that we would provide jobs, prosperity and opportunity. Of course, with the downturn in 2009 that became more difficult, but Canada is still in an enviable position with our economy compared to all the other economies in the world.

To come back to this FIPA for a moment, what we are dealing with here is a foreign investment promotion and protection agreement with the second-largest economy in the world. Yes, it took 18 years to negotiate and that is no mean feat, and I give some of the credit to the former government that started it for the right reasons. However, our government finished it, and we put it into place because we need this investment agreement to deal on equal footing with the Chinese, for Canadian investors investing in China. They need this protection much more, I would argue, than Chinese investors investing in Canada. However, there is a little thing that the New Democrats obviously do not understand and that is called “reciprocity”. When we have a set of rules, we have to offer that same set of rules to the partner in the agreement.

This agreement was signed to protect Canadian investors in China through stable, predictable rules and protection against discriminatory and arbitrary practices. Opposition members can try to make it more complicated than that, but it is no more complicated than that. It allows predictability. It allows transparency, and there is transparency and public access to any arbitration. The idea that there is not is simply incorrect. All of the hearings, all of the paperwork, will be provided to Canadians upon request, and there will be transparent public access to the dispute settlement procedures.

I am going to get off this topic and talk about trade a little bit, because it is all one and the same. What we have is a party that is anti-trade and now it is coming out to be anti-investment. For businesses looking to set up in China, the Chinese could not treat a Canadian company less favourably than they would any other foreign company looking to do the same thing. Once an investment is made, a Canadian business could not be treated less favourably than any other business, including Chinese businesses.

I really cannot comprehend the opposition to this treaty. We are creating a secure, predictable environment for Canadian investors, and we are not doing any more than that. There is nothing hidden here. This is about opportunity for Canadian investors in China. This is about equal footing and reciprocity for Chinese investors in Canada. We are dealing here with the world's second-largest economy with arguably the largest reserves of foreign currency of any nation in the world, and we are hearing from the official opposition members that we do not want to trade with China, and I do not know where they expect this country to go.

I started to articulate my opposition to their line of questioning on the favoured nation status for imports coming from China or exports from China to Canada. I think we have to draw them together. For the public listening to this, here is the dichotomy. On one side of the equation, the official opposition is against rules-based investing and rules-based trading apparently with China, and on the other side of the equation, the official opposition asks that China, the second-largest economy in the world, remain on the preferred nations list. That list of 72 nations was put together for emerging economies, nations and people living in poverty, to give them an opportunity to get out of that situation and to move from an emerging economy to a mature economy.

Most people would argue that China has done that. So have India, Brazil and a number of other countries that were on the list. They no longer have a preferential tariff coming into Canada. They are now on equal footing with Canadian companies. They do not have that advantage. This is one and the same. We are talking about the same issue here. I find it bizarre that the anti-investment position the NDP takes is the same anti-trade position it takes. Since we formed government in 2006, we have been opening up trade. We have been trading with countries around the world.

We continue to get static from the official opposition and sometimes from the Liberals, though the Liberals tend to at least say they believe in free trade. We saw a number of trade agreements, and it is as if trade and investment do not account for anything in Canada. It accounts for one out of every five jobs and it accounts for 64% of Canadians' annual income. That may not be important to the opposition parties, but it is certainly important to us.

The Liberals were in power for 13 years and they signed three trade agreements. One of them was an extension of NAFTA, which they were going to get rid of but could not, because it was too important. They saw the error of that and they changed their ways, which I appreciate, because governments are sometimes forced into positions they did not originally take.

We are continuing to negotiate deals around the world. We are working on a free trade agreement with India, and we are working on a free trade agreement with Japan. At committee, we have been discussing the Pacific alliance, although again, the NDP and the Liberals do not want to discuss that agreement and its potential. Here is their logic and it is not unlike their logic with the FIPA with China: It is not important. It is not important to Canadians and it is not important enough for us to take our time to conduct even a precursory study or to take even a brief glance at it, to see if it is worth pursuing.

When we look at the real numbers in that agreement—and it is no different from the position they are taking on the FIPA with India—we have Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. We have already got bilateral agreements with those countries and we have already got a very good trading relationship with them, but those countries put together make up the ninth-largest trading bloc in the world. The answer we get from the opposition is that it does not want to study this. It does not want to look at it, it does not want to talk about it or think about it because it is not important.

What is important? The opposition does not want a foreign investment promotion and protection agreement with China, because it is not important enough. The second-largest economy in the world and a growing and dynamic nation that we need to do greater business with, and we will continue to do greater business with, is not important enough. The opposition is not going to support the CETA, the comprehensive economic trade agreement with the European Union, because it is apparently not important enough. The NDP does know about that. There were 28 countries on July 1. The official opposition does realize the importance, I would hope, of this; the ability for Canada to expand with traditional trading partners and form potentially one of the most, if not the most, important trading bloc in the world.

Canada, with 33 million people, would sit between the United States, with 330 million people and an affluent economy that is starting to rebound, and the European economy, which even though it is struggling has 500 million consumers and is one of the wealthiest economies in the world. Canada, with 33 million people and goods, services and talented workers to offer those economies, would be between those two huge economies in an enviable position to any nation on earth, and all we get from the opposition, in place of support, is condemnation.

I cannot understand that for the life of me. Perhaps we are going to see some type of an epiphany on behalf of the official opposition. Perhaps it is going to change its ways. Perhaps it will begin to embrace investment and trade.

I have seen nothing to assure me that this will occur. First, we really have to look at our position on investment, which we have discussed. Second, we have to look at our position on trade and our rejuvenated global commerce strategy, which allows Canadian goods, services, talent and investments to be spread around the world. In our own hemisphere, we have to look at our Americas strategy and the importance of that Americas strategy to many of our provincial manufacturers that, by looking at the Americas, and not just the United States and Mexico but also looking at the Caribbean, Central America and South America, are able to invest in real time, in their own time zone, not talking to somebody 10 or 11 hours away, in the western hemisphere.

We will continue that strategy. We will continue the Americas strategy. We will continue our strategy for the Caribbean. We will continue a global commerce strategy, because it is good for Canadians, for manufacturing and for workers.

The NDP record deserves to be discussed because it has brought forward the motion. It is 17th in the NDP list of priorities. The NDP had 17 oppositions days to debate this, but chose not to do so. Now all of a sudden it is a priority.

I believe it has become a priority for the NDP because it was hoping that by holding back there would be some kind of groundswell of support. That did not occur. The hon. member said that he had 17,000 emails, but I do not know if that 17,000 emails is 1,700 emails sent 10 times or if it is 170 emails sent 100 times. I certainly received some of those form emails. It was a matter that someone forwarded it to someone else, and then it could be forwarded to a member of Parliament. I had emails that had reasonable, responsible concerns that were easily addressed.

Let us take a look at the NDP trade and investment record and at what the New Democratic Party is actually saying. Page 18 of the NDP policy book states, “New Democrats believe in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement”. That is incredible. The trade critic, the member for Vancouver Kingsway, said that he would not support a free trade agreement because trade unions did not want it. Those are his words, not mine. I am just reading it back.

The former NDP trade critic from Windsor West has said that he supports the efforts of big union bosses to stop any further trade negotiations with Korea, Japan and the European Union.

Are we to become isolationists? Are we to withdraw? Are we to lose that slight advantage that we have over other countries in the G7, the G8 and the WTO?

These are difficult times. The world is truly at a crossroads. The economy is struggling. We have never said anything else. However, we are better off because of prudent fiscal management than all of our neighbours.

Let us look at some more quotes. I only have a minute left and I want to get these on the record.

The former NDP trade critic from Dartmouth—Cole Harbour described the free trade agreements as “job destroying”.

The member for British Columbia Southern Interior said that trade agreements threatened the very existence of our nation.

The member for Welland said that the Conservative government told them that free trade was good for all of us, and he begged to differ.

The former critic from Burnaby—New Westminster even said in the House that free trade had cost Canadians dearly.

I ask Canadians to use some common sense. There is nothing hidden here. There is nothing untoward. This is a straightforward investment agreement that would allow Canadians investing in China to do so with assurance and would offer the same rights to Chinese investors in Canada.

[Business of Supply, April 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, this opportunity to debate the motion by the member for Vancouver Kingsway gives me a bit more time to expand on some of the ideas I have on his motion and on the lack of time in questioning. Let us be clear and let us try, in the interests of openness and honesty in this place, to lay out the parameters of what we are actually discussing.

I have heard a lot of talk about the inability to debate this in the House. Of course, the hon. member would know that, prior to the Conservatives' coming to government in 2006, there was no ability to debate treaties, not just investment treaties but any treaty in the House. We debated free trade agreements because that is legislation, but there was no ability to debate treaties. We changed that law to allow treaties to be debated. Since coming to power, we have signed FIPAs with 11 countries: Iran, China, Czech Republic, Jordan, Peru, Kuwait, Latvia, Madagascar, Mali, Romania and Slovakia. Apparently, none of those were worthy of debate; they are basically all the same format.

[Business of Supply, April 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, of course, through you, to the hon. member, the issue here is quite simple. The hon. member and the party do not want Chinese investment in Canada. They do not want Canadian investment in China. Then why are they asking every day to have the tariff on Chinese products coming into Canada reduced, which would put our manufacturers at a disadvantage?

[Business of Supply, April 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I will try to be fairly brief in my question. I listened closely to the hon. member's speech. It is not just anti-investment, it is basically anti-trade.

There are a couple of corrections to be made.

I think one of the most important ones is the right to regulate in the public interest. The hon. member knows full well, even though he would not state it in his speech, that under this treaty, both Canada and China have the right to regulate in the public interest. Chinese investors in Canada must obey the laws and regulations of Canada, just as Canadian investors in China must obey the laws and regulations in China.

Another point the hon. member made that is absolutely incorrect is that the government denied an emergency debate. The government does not denied emergency debates, Mr. Speaker. You deny emergency debates.

There are a few small corrections.

However, here is the issue. I do not understand the NDP's position on investment. Perhaps you can enlighten me. You do not want Chinese investment in Canada. You do not want Canadian investment in China--

[International Trade, April 17th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, we all ask ourselves the question: Why does the NDP consistently oppose every trade agreement that this government negotiates? Members can check the record. They can check individual members' statements. That party is anti-trade and anti—

[International Trade, April 17th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I ask myself the question, and I am sure every member in the House does, why does the NDP consistently--