International Trade committee  Thank you very much. I think it was very clear that the Build Back Better Act would have damaged the auto industry, for instance. That's why you were there and we were there, fighting to make some amendments. However, moving forward with the IRA, what is really interesting is how the act has put forward this connection of creating jobs in a low-carbon economy that incentivizes good jobs being present now and builds out to really good union jobs in the future through its apprenticeship training.

International Trade committee  I think that where there is a strong will, there is strong vision and there are strong actions behind the good union jobs. That's building out into the future with all of the new activities and the low-carbon economy through the IRA. On the Canadian side, I think that it would help expand the good jobs here, but you're right.

International Trade committee  I think the pressure that Canada should put on the U.S. government should be to ensure that Canadians have access to the new markets being developed as well as the expansion of those markets. For example, the Build Back Better Act basically excluded or would have been harmful to auto, whereas the Inflation Reduction Act is inclusive.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for your question. I would say that the IRA is very interesting in the sense that it's a game-changer. The magnitude and the scope of what it's addressing are, if nothing else, both an opportunity and a bit of a push as well for us to expand a lot of our own manufacturing, including steel, obviously, and including auto.

International Trade committee  Thank you. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the committee. I'm grateful for the invitation to speak to you today. I'm Elizabeth Kwan. I am a senior researcher for the Canadian Labour Congress and the policy lead on trade. The CLC is Canada's largest central labour body and speaks on issues of national importance for more than three million unionized workers across Canada.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for your question. I would say that, in many of these countries, they are still developing and many of their labour standards are not the same as in Canada, the U.S. or the EU. That is just the reality. We don't want to harm workers whether it's Canadian workers or workers in those countries.

International Trade committee  I would say that, with our biggest trade partner, the U.S.A. and the CUSMA, we've seen much of that enforceability at work. In fact, we've seen not only state-to-state dispute settlements, but we've also seen a number of the rapid response labour mechanisms come to play. Those are the real examples of what enforceable chapters in trade agreements look like.

International Trade committee  That's correct.

International Trade committee  Sure. Thank you for your question. Specifically, as far as I know, I don't believe that any of our trade agreements have that specific mention of arms or arms production. I know that sometimes—not arms production necessarily, but on a segue I'm adding a bit here—the production of goods gets, how shall I say, laundered.

International Trade committee  Yes, we do. The same would apply for not just child labour and forced labour, but also for the greenwashing of environmental labels as well. Supply chains are very complex and deep, so to actually be able to verify that there is no child or forced labour or greenwashing of environmental labelling is doable, but very difficult.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for your question, Mr. Virani. Yes, there are some issues. We've had a first round debrief from the government on the negotiations with Indonesia, and the long and short of it is that the template of what we want in comprehensive trade agreements is very much North American or EU-centric, and many of the countries in the Indo-Pacific region do not negotiate strong labour, environment or inclusive trade chapters.

International Trade committee  Thank you for your question. One thing we have to recall is the recent cancellation of PPE from Malaysia that Canada initiated due to severe concerns about the use of forced labour. There's also child labour involved in many agricultural endeavours, although it's always a to and fro.

International Trade committee  The sectors involved would be numerous. It really depends on the country. You're talking about a whole region, but I would say that in agriculture, in textiles, in mining.... There are all sorts of sectors that involve either forced labour or child labour. Of course, not every company does this, but definitely it's a lot more prevalent than in Canada.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would say that the unions are very strong. We have a lot of internal groups that work on equity issues, and we have different equity groups, so it's not just one. We have indigenous, racialized, workers with disabilities, and LGBTQ working groups. We have done a lot of work in the past.

Human Resources committee  I think one of the reasons the CLC calls for access to permanent residency is that one of the features of the temporary foreign worker program that makes workers vulnerable is the employer-specific, or tied, work permits. What happens is that everything depends on that one relationship with that one employer.