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ACTION ALERT: Show us the deal, give us a say! Demand transparency and public input before CETA is signed
Updated February 21, 2012
 The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiations are winding down. The Harper government says it wants a deal signed by the summer. Once it’s signed, there will be almost no way to make any changes to the CETA before it is ratified by Parliament. This is how trade agreements are normally put into place but it doesn’t mean we should accept it as normal.
We should demand full transparency and the opportunity to change the deal before it is signed!
Our provinces and territories owe us a say
We need to make this demand to our provincial and territorial leaders since they have been at the CETA bargaining table from the beginning. Secret documents made public in January show that the provincial-territorial governments have done a bad job protecting public services and important public policy from CETA rules designed to commercialize more and more aspects of our lives.
Drinking water and sanitation services, transit, energy, education, health care – all are to be treated as commodities under the CETA and not as essential social services. Procurement rules will hamper economic development and job-creation options for municipal governments. These are some of the last equalizers local governments have in our increasingly unequal society. The goal of CETA is to push them out of public control in order to “liberate” them for profiteers.
What is at stake?
Procurement, or the money our municipalities, school boards, provincial Crown corporations and utilities spend on public contracts, is the EU’s first priority in the CETA talks with Canada. If concluded, a deal would ban these public bodies from favouring local or small-business bidders even when the tendering process was completely transparent and fair. This could apply to local food purchasing strategies that support small farmers. The procurement chapter in CETA would remove one of the last remaining tools our local communities have to foster sustainable, local development.
Services and investment commitments leaked to the public in January include promises to liberalize (i.e. encourage more privatization of) drinking water or sanitation services, public transit, waste management and other essential services. Relatively weak protections in NAFTA for public health care and education will also be further diluted. While these were initial offers sent to EU negotiators in October 2011, there is a chance the provinces and territories could make them even worse before the CETA is signed.
Extreme investment protections in the CETA for brand name pharmaceutical companies could block the introduction of cheaper generic drugs on the Canadian market, pushing up costs to public and private drug plans by almost $3 billion dollars. The deal could also undermine protections for Canadian culture, shift the balance of power away from farmers and toward big grain and agricultural producers like Monsanto, and remove foreign ownership limits on strategic or ecologically sensitive sectors like fisheries and natural resources. European firms will have access to a strong investor-state dispute resolution process like the one in NAFTA which lets firms threaten provincial and territorial governments with lawsuits if they introduce new policies in these and other areas.
It’s hard to argue with transparency
Whatever your position on these issues or the Canada-EU trade deal generally, it's hard to argue that provincial or territorial trade negotiators and a tiny group of ministers should have the exclusive authority to make a final decision in these and other areas.
More information on CETA, the provinces and municipalities:
Take action
Demand your province or territory make its CETA procurement, services and goods offers public, and that it hold a public debate on what is at stake in the Canada-EU free trade negotiations. You can use the sample letter below as a guide. Make sure to send a copy of your letter to your local provincial representative or candidate if there is an election coming up, as well as municipal councillors, many of whom may not be aware how they will be impacted by CETA.
You can also use this sample for a letter-to-the-editor in your local newspaper »
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