Ottawa – The Council of Canadians responds to statements today from International Trade Minister Ed Fast following his meeting in Ottawa with Danish counterpart, Trade and Investment Minister Pia Olsen Dyhr, regarding the status of Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiations.
“The Canada-EU trade deal offers little new access to the European market that Canadian companies don’t already have. We should see CETA for what it is – a covert way for the Harper government to further restructure and deregulate the Canadian economy in the interests of multinational corporations and purely for their profit,” says Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, a national grassroots social justice organization.
“Over 33 municipalities, including major cities like Toronto, Mississauga and Hamilton, have asked to be taken out of CETA altogether. They are asking why they should have to give up important job creation tools like putting Canadian content requirements on public contracts or using ‘buy local’ policies to help local farmers. If Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec can protect these policies for their hydro utilities, our municipalities should hold onto them, too,” adds Barlow.
The Council of Canadians is one of over 30 organizations in the Trade Justice Network, which is opposed to CETA because of the impact it would have on social, cultural and environmental policy, public services, Indigenous rights and local democracy.
In January, the Council of Canadians and Canadian Union of Public Employees issued a report called ‘Full of Holes’ which asked why the federal and provincial governments had failed to exclude drinking water services from its initial offers to the EU when EU negotiators were asking to carve out municipal drinking and wastewater services. The report was based on leaked documents available at http://tradejustice.ca.
-30-
