Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to follow up quickly with a couple of questions about our CETA negotiations. I learned that we are trying to protect our communities, or at least stay in touch with them, and that there are procurement thresholds.
The numbers I’ve seen, and I’m not privy to all this information at all, but in fact would allow most of our infrastructure projects to be susceptible to getting through these agreements. I think partly because our infrastructure is so expensive, and this obviously is a concern. So I’d be wanting to know what the ministry is doing to protect our local providers again on this front.
I would like to know what the department’s, as lead for the government, position is. Are they judging that the benefits to business will outweigh and be acceptable and outweigh the rising cost of living, which the agreement will bring through things like rising drug costs and loss of local contracting, or is their position confidential? Again, that raises the question of transparency. The Minister is right; it’s unusual for provincial and territorial governments to be able to participate here. Again, if it’s happening behind closed doors, that doesn’t do a lot for us, but is there any information, any transparency, any clarity the Minister can provide on what our positions are in these areas?