Council of Canadians Brings Awareness to Environmental Issues to Prince Albert

We will be to City Council Jan 24 to speak about CETA (information found below).

Thursday, February 3 at the JMC Library Jim Hardingis speaking on Why Saskatchewan Needs a Nuclear Waste Ban:  7:00—cosponsored with the Prince Albert Chapter of the Council of Canadians and Renewable Power—The Intelligent Choice (RPIC).

Dr.  Harding is a retired professor of justice studies at the University of Regina, a founding member of the Regina Group for a Non-Nuclear Society, and was director of research for Prairie Justice Research at the University of Regina. He is a longtime peace and environmental activist in Canada.   Harding was a consultant to the NFB award-winning film, Uranium.

Additionally, plans are well underway for World Water Day on March 22 which will be co-sponsored by JMC Public Library. We plan to show a film on Fracking–either Burning Water or Gasland and have one or two speakers discussing water issues.

We will be celebrating Earth Day on April 16 this year and plan to have several local performers and displays, activities for children, good healthy, wholesome food, and speakers.

Court proceedings

'The impact of this trauma will echo for generations': court case surrounding La Ronge woman's death reaches conclusion

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Going Global

P.A.'s Zablocki named to Team Canada for U18 Women's World Championships

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Election 2024

Birch Hills staff won't share election decision

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Canada-European Union free trade talks are far advanced and provincial-territorial offers on services, procurement and investment could be sent to EU negotiators as early as April, 2011. If those offers include a commitment to apply one-size-fits-all “free” trade rules to Canada’s municipalities, we will forever change the way our local governments spend public money — for the worse. Creative economic, environmental or ethical purchasing strategies will be sacrificed for a discredited bottom-line only model.

Signing cities (and towns) to CETA’s procurement chapter is the wrong way to go. It will not open new opportunities for Canadian business in Europe. It will simply shut opportunities for Canadian municipalities to get the most out of public spending on goods, services and major construction projects. It’s unnecessary and reckless in an age demanding economic transition to sustainable, local development.

Not surprisingly, a growing number of cities and towns are uneasy about and in some cases opposed to CETA.

The Union of British Colombia Municipalities (UBCM) has passed a resolution brought forward by the District of Logan Lake and City of Burnaby, whichrequests:

• a briefing from the Province of B.C. on the scope and content of trade negotiations with the European Union;
• the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to provide sector-by-sector analysis of the potential impacts on municipal functions and powers of the procurement regime that the European Union is seeking;
• the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to urge the government of Canada not to provide the European Union with access to sub national government procurement; and
• that the provincial government negotiate a clear, permanent exemption for local governments from CETA.

That last point is crucial if cities and towns are going to preserve the space they need to set local economic and environmental policies without fear of expensive and time-consuming trade challenges from EU-based multinationals.

CETA’s procurement chapter would:

• Ban “offsets”, or conditions on local spending that encourage local development;
• Ban “Buy Canadian” policies on major transit, energy and construction projects (i.e. exactly where we want to get the most socially beneficial bang for our buck);
• Make local food or ethical procurement strategies vulnerable to legal challenges from EU and Canadian multinational companies;
• Increase the cost to municipalities of tendering contracts and give EU companies the legal means to delay or overturn decisions that don’t go in their favour, and;
• Encourage the privatization of Canada’s public water systems if EU requests to include water utilities and agencies are granted.

The EU and Canadian governments claim this is about openness and fairness when really it is just a recipe for less competition and fewer opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses.

For more information about how CETA will affect municipalities, see the recent legal opinion by trade and public interest lawyer Steven Shrybman (attached). Also see “Negotiating From Weakness,” a report by Scott Sinclair (attached), a senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, on how unbalanced the Canada-EU trade negotiations are. For the impact CETA will have on public water in Canada, see our fact sheet, “Private water and CETA” (attached) and the .

The benefits to Canada’s municipalities of signing onto CETA are slim to none. The cost to local economic development and environmental policy options are far too high.

DRAFT RESOLUTION

WHEREASthe government of Canada and the European Union have been negotiating a trade agreement known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (the “CETA”); and

WHEREASthe European Union and European corporations are insisting on full access to procurement by sub-national governments – including municipalities, school boards, universities, hospitals and other provincial agencies – which could significantly reduce or eliminate the right to specify local priorities when public money is invested in goods, services or capital projects; and

WHEREASCanadian municipalities have expressed growing concerns with trade agreements and their potential impacts on municipal programs and services and local autonomy; and

WHEREASunfettered access to Canadian municipal procurement by European corporations may encourage privatization and reduce economic development options for local communities; and

WHEREASthe provincial and territorial governments have been actively involved in negotiating CETA with the European Union:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVEDthat the [NAME OF PROVINCIAL OR TERRITORIAL MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION] request:

• a briefing from the Province of BC on the scope and content of trade negotiations with the European Union;
• the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to provide sector-by-sector analysis of the potential impacts on municipal functions and powers of the procurement regime that the European Union is seeking;
• the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to urge the government of Canada not to provide the European Union with access to sub national government procurement; and
• that the provincial government negotiate a clear, permanent exemption for local governments from CETA.