Maybe a billion dollars of security spending would be worth it – that is, if it protected us from the B20 which is about to descend on Toronto.
The Globe and Mail reports that, “An exclusive group of high-profile business leaders from around the world will have a chance to tell the Group of 20 finance ministers and Prime Minister Stephen Harper what they think of everything from a bank tax to protectionism as the Toronto summit convenes next week.”
In short, they don’t like the idea of a bank tax and they are pro-free trade.
Canadian Council of Chief Executives head John Manley says, “We’ll have a roundtable with the finance ministers and then a conversation with Prime Minister Harper.”
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a recent media release, “It is my hope that the business summit will not only inform discussions by G20 leaders, but enable business to play an active role in finding practical solutions to the global challenges we all face.”
THE AGENDA
“Over the course of an all-day gathering on June 26, the business leaders will discuss:
– the recession and the recovery
– financial market risk and regulation
– the drivers of sustainable growth
– the bank tax.”
The Canadian delegation wants to talk about:
– continued trade liberalization
– the global economy
– co-ordination of policies in a range of areas, including energy and the environment.
And with the European Union, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy at the G20 and B20 meetings, it’s important to note that John Manley and the CCCE strongly support the Canada-EU CETA.
WHO WILL BE THERE?
“The business leaders from most of the G20 nations have been hand-selected by their governments.”
International participants include:
– Alexei Mordashov, the chief executive officer of Russia’s OAO Severstal
– Cesar Alierta, CEO of Spain’s Telefonica
– Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline
– Stephen Green, chairman of HSBC Holding PLC.
Canada’s delegation includes:
– John Manley, head of the CCCE
– Perrin Beatty, head of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce
– Hartley Richardson, CEO of James Richardson and Sons
– Bill Downe, CEO of Bank of Montreal
– Rick George, CEO of Suncor
– Pierre Beaudoin, CEO of Bombardier
– Gordon Nixon, the CEO of Royal Bank of Canada.
“The global business leaders are expected to hear from keynote speakers such as Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, and Mario Draghi, the chairman of the Financial Stability Board.”
TAKE ACTION
The place for national leaders to meet is not in behind barbed wire fences in small groups of eight or twenty, but rather in the General Assembly at the United Nations. It is our belief that these G-192 meetings should also include a true dialogue with broader civil society. The narrower corporate interests – exemplified by the B20 – should not have the kind of exclusive privileged access that they now enjoy.
To respond to our ‘ACTION ALERT: Scrap the Summits’, please go to http://canadians.org/action/2010/scrap-summit.html.
FURTHER READING
The campaign blog ‘NEWS: B20 to meet with G20 finance ministers’ is at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=3763.
The Globe and Mail article is at http://theglobeandmail.com/news/world/g8-g20/news/business-leaders-to-meet-with-g20-finance-ministers/article1608243/?.
