International Trade committee  Very quickly, during the process leading up to the Canada-Colombia FTA negotiations, this committee, differently constituted, issued a report. That report recommended that a human rights impact assessment be done before Canada actually entered into the Canada-Colombia FTA. Now, t

International Trade committee  Again, as I said in my opening statement, our union and the Canadian labour movement in general recognizes the importance of trade. We are not anti-trade per se, but we say that trade ought to take place under specific terms in which, again, the terms of the trade agreements make

International Trade committee  I certainly deny the link between economic growth and the standard of living for many. The problem is that the improvements in the standard of living to which you refer are not equally distributed. As I mentioned earlier, since the U.S.-Jordan FTA was signed in 2001, there has be

International Trade committee  Reference has been made before the committee to I believe a 2010 change to the Jordanian labour law, which provided, I will concede, to some extent greater rights for migrant workers to join unions, but there continues to be substantial and discriminatory treatment against migran

International Trade committee  Our members work for the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan in Saskatchewan. Premier Wall could testify firsthand to the importance of that industry to the Saskatchewan economy and to the importance of being able to maintain some sort of domestic control over that company. Indeed

International Trade committee  I think your point is very well taken. The fact is that robust investor-state provisions that we see in Canadian trade agreements and in the investor agreement with Jordan have a pernicious and dangerous effect upon the rights of workers. The point I was making was really in an

International Trade committee  We did not support the free trade agreement, certainly, with Colombia. I'm not sure we took a particular position on the Panama free trade agreement. But yes, as you point out, the provisions are very similar.

International Trade committee  Again, to pick up on your former point, because Canada has now essentially adopted a template for trade agreements—

International Trade committee  Let me finish. It's a template to which we have never particularly subscribed. It's therefore not surprising that we haven't supported any of the template agreements the Canadian government has entered into. If I could address your first point—

International Trade committee  Well, the template really started with the North American Free Trade Agreement. It's that template I'm referring to, and it's that template the Canadian government has continued to follow. We didn't support NAFTA, and therefore we haven't followed any other agreements that have f

International Trade committee  If I could make one other quick point, you mentioned the issue of transparency, to bring up my former point. One of the problems, of course, is that these trade agreements are presented to this committee and to Parliament and to everyone, for that matter, as a fait accompli. That

International Trade committee  Let me tell you exactly how we negotiate with employers. When we negotiate with employers, we meet with all of our members. We send them surveys on their priorities in bargaining. We put together and collate those surveys. We then have meetings with all of our members, or if it's

International Trade committee  Mr. Neil raised the question of the human rights assessment. Again, I think it is incumbent upon this committee and the Canadian government to have a full assessment done on the possible impact this trade agreement is going to have before we enter into it. To the best of my knowl

International Trade committee  The short answer is no. I will speak on two levels to that question. Again, I have been involved in numerous complaints that were filed under the NAFTA labour side agreements. I have used those complaints. Without exception they have all ended with ministerial consultations tha

International Trade committee  I'm not aware of any. If you look at all the literature I have seen, and obviously NAFTA is the example that has the longest track record, economic, equality, labour, and trade union rights in all three of the NAFTA signatories countries—Canada, the United States, and Mexico—have