International Trade committee  Absolutely. We have the labour market development agreements, which have been at around $2 billion since they started. Those have been devolved to the provinces, and I think we are in the process of renegotiating them. Using what we already have in the labour market development a

International Trade committee  No. A lot of German, French, and other companies.... “Services” is actually code for municipally provided public services, where they'll be coming in and doing waste water.... They've already privatized those services in Europe. There are large companies with that expertise, and

International Trade committee  That's a fantastic question. I think you know that Gus Van Harten, Michael Geist, and other experts have said that much of what we want to accomplish could be accomplished through federal courts or state-to-state dispute mechanisms like we have through the WTO, and if we get rid

International Trade committee  As others have noted, we're in a slow growth situation. We are in a situation where, over the past 30 years, wages have not kept up with productivity growth in Canada or the U.S. Obviously, it's better in Canada than it is in the U.S. As for what these trade deals do, that Tufts

International Trade committee  Sure. I think we should be able to have trade sanctions. For example, if a shipping company doesn't pay fair wages or the minimum wage in Canada, then we should be able to revoke their privilege to move shipments within Canada.

International Trade committee  No. It's specifically the extension of patent protections in Bill C-30 that will cause prices to rise.

International Trade committee  There are other reasons behind our higher drug prices and the fact that they're rising. Bulk buying is one of the things we can do to address that, but what CETA will do is increase it beyond how it's already increasing. Having a national pharmacare program, bulk buying, looking

International Trade committee  What CETA will do is make drugs more expensive, which will make it more expensive to implement a pharmacare program. CETA itself doesn't restrict the introduction of a national pharmacare program—that's allowed—but it's clear that the single largest impact from CETA will be on pr

International Trade committee  I want to get to the Coasting Trade Act. Wages and working conditions vary greatly in the global shipping industry. In recognition of that, Canada and the U.S. have placed significant restrictions on shipping within Canada. Bill C-30 undermines cabotage in three ways: government

International Trade committee  Thank you very much. I apologize to the translators because this isn't in my speech, but at the top I want to say that I'm very concerned that some people are drawing the wrong lessons from Brexit and from Trump. Economists like Dani Rodrik at Harvard University and Thomas Pik

Finance committee  The Canadian Union of Public Employees has done a lot of work around this. What we're asking for is comprehensive P3 accountability and transparency legislation.

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  That's not my area of expertise. I'm sorry, I don't know. I do know that it's valuable. and I can send the committee a copy of our research on that.

Finance committee  Yes, we have worked with a coalition of child care workers and providers about where we think it would be best spent and how we would like to do that. That coalition has a framework.

Finance committee  No. There are public services that can be efficiently and effectively provided by the public sector. The private sector is not necessarily better at providing those services, because those services don't necessarily generate profit, which is what the private sector is interested