Honourable senators, I’m rising as the sponsor of Bill C-4, which I think everyone knows is the implementation legislation for the Canada-United States-Mexico free trade agreement.

I wanted to say a few words about the government’s motion relating to the pre-study of Bill C-4, which, of course, is CUSMA in its shortest form, at least in Canada. It’s USMCA in the United States and T-MEC in Mexico.

Honourable colleagues, this is an extremely important matter. It is not just about vetting and passing this motion expeditiously, but getting CUSMA done. It is also important for the Senate to demonstrate that we are moving forward, and we have the national interest as top of mind.

As Senator Gold said yesterday on the issue of temporarily reconstituting a committee from the last Parliament, there is a precedent for this as recent as the Finance Committee being reconstituted in December for the supplementary estimates. Of course, there is also a precedent for pre-studies themselves, for example, with budget implementation acts and other important bits of legislation.

Canadian workers and businesses of all kinds are looking for certainty and predictability in their trading patterns in North America. They want to put the turmoil of the negotiations behind them. I think it’s crucial that we vote to approve this motion quickly, so we can be ready to do our work in this chamber when we receive Bill C-4 from the other place.

I read carefully the debates from committee in the House of Commons, and it seems there has been agreement on a fairly short timeline. I submit that we should be ready in this chamber to move forward.

Ratifying CUSMA quickly has been called for by the Council of the Federation, all 13 premiers of all political stripes, business groups, leaders, labour, farmers and Canadians themselves. This is not a political issue; it is a Canadian issue, and it is very important. Thank you.