CNBC via Getty Images CNBC EVENTS -- Pictured: Joseph Stiglitz, ecomonist and Professor at Columbia University, speaks at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, 'The Future of Impact', hosted by former President Bill Clinton, at the Sheraton Times Square in New York City, on September 28, 2015 -- (Photo by: Adam Jeffery/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

OTTAWA — Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says Canada should reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal because it is a flawed trade agreement that benefits big business at the expense of working people.

The Columbia University professor is delivering that message in a speech at a University of Ottawa conference on the Pacific Rim trade agreement that includes the United States and Japan and covers 40 per cent of the world economy.

The House of Commons trade committee is studying the TPP, a process which International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland has said could take up to nine months.

After that, she has promised that only a vote in Parliament would ratify the deal, which was negotiated under the former Conservative government.

Canada signed the sweeping, 12-country treaty in February, something Freeland called a "technical step" that doesn't mean ratification.

Stiglitz said the deal would cost Canada jobs and weaken the government's ability to make regulations, including those meant to protect the environment.