SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Hon. Ed Fast

  • Member of Parliament
  • Conservative
  • Abbotsford
  • British Columbia
  • Voting Attendance: 66%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $146,571.88

  • Government Page
  • Oct/24/23 12:32:39 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-57 
Madam Speaker, the member spent a lot of time talking about investor protections, and she suggested that foreign investment protection promotion agreements are corrosive to democracy and to how we represent Canada's sovereignty at home and abroad. However, I would ask her a question. There has been an investor protection agreement in place with Ukraine since 1994, for 30 years. Can she point out one or two cases under those provisions that have resulted in Canada's sovereignty's being impaired?
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  • Oct/23/23 4:09:51 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-57 
Mr. Speaker, I am chuckling a bit because the member talked about a trade agreement. What Canada signed with China was not a trade agreement; it was an investment protection agreement. The purpose of that agreement was to protect Canadian investors when they invest in China, because China does not respect the rule of law the way we do in Canada. We worked very hard for many, many years to get that agreement in place because we had identified situations where Canadian companies had made significant investments in China. One example was gold mining. After the prospecting was done and after a very productive deposit was found, guess what happened. The Chinese government stepped up and said it wanted to have Chinese businesses develop the mine and take the profits out of it. That is why we needed an investment protection agreement. It is not a trade access agreement. It does not provide new access to Canada for China to trade. It protects Canadians when they do business in China. I encourage the member to please get his facts right and make sure he understands the agreements that Canada is signing.
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