Brandon-Westman chapter activist Dr. Scott Blyth, Brandon-Souris MP Larry Maguire
The Council of Canadians Brandon-Westman chapter is challenging Conservative MP Larry Maguire’s support for the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
In a Brandon Sun opinion piece, chapter activist Dr. Scott Blyth writes, “We learned, in a column from Brandon-Souris Conservative MP Larry Maguire, that [CETA] is a wonderful thing! (Free Trade Has A Lot To Offer, Dec. 3). He cites several examples of people that he knows or companies he has talked to reaping huge benefits from the CETA opportunity. However, if ratified, CETA will unfairly restrict how local governments spend money by banning ‘buy local’ policies, add hundreds of millions of dollars to the price of pharmaceutical drugs in our public health-care system on top of the increased cost of prescription drugs, create pressure to increase privatization of local water systems, transit and energy, and much more.”
Blyth notes, “Big Pharma will be able to reap huge profits, as there are provisions in CETA to extend drug patent times by two years. These, according to a York University study, will increase drug costs by up to $1.65 billion annually. Already Canada has the world’s second highest per-capita drug costs. This would also have policy implications, making it much harder to create a national pharmacare program and denying drug access to poor or unemployed Canadians.”
He then highlights, “On a recent episode of ‘Time for Awareness’, a Council of Canadians’ television production on Access 12, it was estimated that a national pharmacare program would save $11.6 billion annually.” (The Brandon-Westman chapter has a bi-weekly 30-minute local TV program on Westman Communications Group Access 12.)
Blyth adds, “Mr. Maguire’s view is that there are lots of people in the farming sector that will benefit from and are looking forward to and tailoring their business to supply the CETA countries. I wonder if Larry has any friends in the milk industry — they are not happy with CETA. CETA will destabilize Canadian milk producers and will challenge Canada’s supply management system. The Dairy Producers of Canada estimates that this will result in losses of $300 million a year for the industry.”
Blyth concludes, “Larry is right, there will be some business and farm families that will benefit from CETA. But he also doesn’t tell us about the profits big corporations will be making. CETA — not so good!”
The Conservatives and Liberals both support CETA and are voting together to pass C-30, the implementing legislation for it.
For more on our campaign to stop CETA, please click here.
