Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine.
My question has to do with what the hon. member from Hamilton was asking about this agreement with Korea. He may not be right. This is about investment and the possibility of lawsuits for damages following decisions by provincial and municipal governments. I will cite section 8.1.
I only have it in English in front of me, but it says in section 8.1, in relation to scope and coverage of investment, in subclause 3:
For the purposes of this Chapter, measures adopted or maintained by a Party means measures adopted or maintained by:
(a) a national, sub-national, or local government and authority…
This to me means that all levels of government are open to suit by Korea if Korea’s investors do not like the provisions of those measures.
Could the hon. member comment?
Isabelle Morin: Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her question. I did not have time to get to that, but as I mentioned at the end of my speech, if the NDP were to negotiate a free trade agreement with Korea, some of the provisions would not be included. Some aspects would not exist. We would perhaps have spent more time studying the provision mentioned by my colleague.
That said, we have to consider the benefit to Canada at present. When the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada, the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association of Canada, the Seafood Producers Association of British Columbia, the Lobster Council of Canada, the Forest Products Association of Canada and others too numerous to mention all say that they support the agreement, we have to ask ourselves whether it will benefit Canada.
I would say to my colleague that we would not have included some elements in the bill. However, I believe that Korea will be a very strong ally. We should have free trade agreements with countries that, as I was saying, have the same values as we do. I think that is part of it.