Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2021-02-18 11:20 [p.4220]
Madam Speaker, I recall back in 1996 when former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien signed a deal to sell nuclear reactors to the People’s Republic of China, and we gave it the money to buy our reactors. The prime minister at that time said that engagement with China would help our values rub off on them. However, I have been concerned ever since that its values have rubbed off on us: We are more secretive now, and the former government under Stephen Harper signed, in secret, the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with the People’s Republic of China, which means that we could be being sued right now in secret tribunals about which this Parliament knows nothing.
By the way, I congratulate the minister on his new role as Minister of Foreign Affairs, but I would ask if he would undertake to allow a full debate in Parliament and review of how much sovereignty we have lost under the foreign investment protection treaty with the People’s Republic of China, which operates entirely in secret.