NAFTA
AbitibiBowater NAFTA settlement has privatized Canadian water, trade committee hears
Council of Canadians Board member and trade lawyer Steven Shrybman presented to Parliament’s Trade committee on March 8, 2011 arguing that the record-setting $130-million NAFTA settlement with AbitibiBowater has effectively privatized Canada's water by allowing foreign investors to assert a proprietary claim to water permits and even water in its natural state.
"It would be difficult to overstate the consequences of such a profound transformation of the right Canadian governments have always had to own and control public natural resources," said Mr. Shrybman in his presentation to the Standing Committee on International Trade, which is studying the AbitibiBowater NAFTA settlement from last August.
The Council of Canadians feels strongly there is no place in existing or future trade agreements for such overstretching investment protections and has repeatedly called on the federal government to reopen NAFTA to remove the investor-to-state dispute process. The Council also recently joined several other Canadian organizations in writing to all members of the European Parliament urging them to reject the inclusion of NAFTA-like investment protections in the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which could be signed by the end of the year.
Biggest NAFTA settlement in Canada’s history – $130-million AbitibiBowater payout a strong argument for NAFTA renegotiation
On Tuesday, August 24, 2010, the Harper government made a shocking announcement: it would pay pulp and paper company AbitibiBowater $130 million to withdraw its $500-million NAFTA lawsuit against the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Canadian public is essentially paying a multinational company to pick up and leave the province – and without cleaning up its environmental mess! The premature settlement – the largest in Canada’s history of investor-state disputes under NAFTA – has left a number of questions that demand answers, including whether or not AbitibiBowater was compensated for water rights it could not legally own. It also proves again why Canada should renegotiate NAFTA to exclude Chapter 11’s excessive investment protections.
Click here to send a letter to MPs demanding a public hearing on the AbitibiBowater NAFTA sell-out!
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For years, we have been told that globalization and free trade are inevitable, and that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would bring jobs and prosperity to Canadians. But in the aftermath of the softwood lumber decision, even former supporters of free trade are arguing that NAFTA isn’t working for Canada. Some have called for forceful retaliation against the U.S., while others have suggested that we should get out of NAFTA – before it’s too late.
Regardless of the outcome on softwood lumber, the bottom line is still the same: NAFTA is a bad deal for Canada. It undermines democracy, strips Canada of control over our energy resources, threatens to put water up for sale, and endangers health care and other public services. We want a trade system that protects our social safety net, jobs and natural resources.
In this section, you will find information about NAFTA, and the Council of Canadians’ campaign for a better, fairer trade policy for Canada.
The Buy American Boogeyman
Why a Canada-U.S. agreement on local procurement will hurt local communities
The Harper government and Obama administration are currently negotiating a bilateral agreement on sub-federal procurement that could drastically restrict how our cities and provinces spend public money. The plan is supposed to guarantee Canadian companies get access to U.S. state and federal construction projects that currently have “Buy American” conditions attached to them. In return, Harper, and it appears most if not all Canada’s Premiers, are willing to eliminate the right of the provinces, municipalities and other government agencies to buy locally as a matter of policy. The catch is that the plan cannot possibly work! Federal stimulus cash is drying up in the United States, the “Buy American” policies are popular (for good reason), and there’s no way to force U.S. state governments to stop buying American, which they’ve been doing for over 75 years.
Profiting from municipal frustration in Canada, and exaggerating the impact that the U.S. stimulus package will have on Canadian companies, Harper’s plan could bind provinces, territories and cities to unreasonable international trade rules prohibiting any number of conditions on local government spending. Those conditions could include minimum local content rules for materials or services, ethical purchasing policies, or commitments to hire from the community. There is little, if any, proof that further deregulating local and provincial economies in this way would benefit the companies that have been shut out of U.S. infrastructure contracts, or the Canadian cities and towns in which these companies operate.
“Buy Local” policies are not the problem. They are one of the last vestiges of public control over how communities develop and grow, and an important tool in creating sustainable economies.
Manuel Perez Rocha of the Institute for Policy Studies and Kathy Ozer of the National Family Farm Coalition joined John Foster of Common Frontiers to give a continental perspective on the real effects of NAFTA and where governments and peoples movements are diverging on where to go from here on trade.
Event organized by The Council of Canadians and Common Frontiers on November 2, 2009 at Trinity-St. Pauls United Church in Toronto, Ontario. Sponsored by rabble.ca and CUPE. Moderated by Stuart Trew, Trade Campaigner, The Council of Canadians.
Click here to watch videos and here to download poster.
BLOGS: Read NAFTA blog posts in our Trade and Campaign blogs.
VIEW: We Need to Rethink, Not Rearm NAFTA, Manuel Pérez-Rocha and Stuart Trew
Bilateral Investment Treaties: A Canadian primer by the Canadian Council for International Cooperation, Canadian Council for International Co-operation, April 2010
NAFTA’s Chapter 11: A threat to the environment and public policy, Factsheet, October 2009
Say bye to buy local - A primer on trade deals impacting Ontario, CUPE Ontario and the Council of Canadians, October 2009
Joint letter to NAFTA leaders dated June 11, 2009 from the trilateral Task Force on Renegotiating NAFTA
“Fifteen years since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) entered into effect, it has become obvious that many of the promised benefits of the agreement have not come to be. As Members of our Parliaments and Congress in Canada, Mexico and the U.S., we ask you, on behalf of our constituents as well as civil society organizations, to consider a new, people-centered fair trade model; we wish to ensure fair trade with quality-of-life for our peoples and environmental protection as first principles of the Americas. We must reshape trade agreements in North America to ensure rising standards of living for our peoples. Unfortunately, NAFTA has aggravated poverty across the continent. It is clear that NAFTA is not working for the vast majority of inhabitants of North America. It has failed on the bottom line. As lawmakers in our respective chambers, we have voiced concerns about NAFTA promoting a “race to the bottom” rather than equitable development in all three countries.” Read more »
- [10-Dec-10] Council of Canadians demands release of secret Canada-US perimeter security plan
- [9-Dec-10] North American perimeter security a dangerous idea then and now, says Council of Canadians
- A Pressing Case for NAFTA Review and Renegotiation,
Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP), September 10, 2009
- ACTION ALERT: Yes, let's renegotiate or abrogate NAFTA!
- Obama Reaffirms Promise to Renegotiate NAFTA, Huffington Post, January 12, 2009
- Obama and NAFTA, Foreign Policy In Focus, January 9, 2009
- Why We Need to Fix NAFTA, Maude Barlow and John Cavanagh, January 1, 2009
- Canadians Reject McCain’s NAFTA Plea - Continental Movement for Renegotiation Grows - June 20, 2008, Ottawa
- Stop the Bush-McCain Agenda,
Stop Unfair Trade - June 20, 2008, Ottawa
- Victory! Well, sort of... Council welcomes NAFTA victory while decrying NAFTA rules, Canadian Perspectives Autumn 2007
- [27-Feb-08] Harper should join US call to pull the plug on NAFTA, says Council of Canadians
- [28-Sept-07] CEP and Council of Canadians say NAFTA lawsuit threatens sovereignty
- VIDEO: Steven Shrybman, trade specialist at Sack Goldblatt Mitchell LLP and Board Member of The Council of Canadians, on suing over NAFTA. Business News Network (BNN), September 28, 2007
Court upholds corporate rights under NAFTA
December 1, 2006 (OTTAWA) – Yesterday’s decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal upholding the constitutionality of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) fails to acknowledge the enormous influence of international trade agreements on domestic policy, law and the constitution, according to the Council of Canadians.
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