Further to the article I wrote last week "Harper Digs another latrine to flush Canada into", European Union trade officials are in Canada to meet with their Canadian counterparts on what might be the final round of negotiations on a huge new trade agreement called CETA .Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Writes it out in black and white for us- What CETA is about and what it will cost Canadians:
CETA poses a grave threat to Canada's social programs and public services because, for the first time, the provinces are at the table negotiating away their own rights and those of their municipalities. CETA allows corporations to bid on all "sub-national procurement," that is, all the ways in which provincial and municipal levels of governments spend our tax revenues. Access to these levels of government contracts was not available in previous trade deals and represents the mother lode for foreign companies, anywhere from $100 billion to $200 billion a year .
European corporations want to sell Canadians the services we now receive publicly, services such as health care, education, water and mail delivery, and CETA will give these private companies the right to bid on government tenders for goods and services including schools, hospitals, airports, public transit, ports, and hydro projects to name just a few. Any rules or practices that favour local economic development, support local food production or promote local or Canadian goods and services will be challenged as unfair barriers to trade. As well, these corporations will have the right to challenge any local laws that promote fair trade or reflect the environmental concerns of the community, such as bottled water bans.
Europe is also in a race with China to nail down access to raw resources such as Canada's fish, potash, natural gas, forests, and minerals and will gain permanent access to these resources through an "investor-state" provision of CETA that will give European corporations the right to sue Canadian governments if they try to interfere with their "right to profit." Under a similar provision in NAFTA, the Harper government shockingly recently paid an American pulp and paper corporation, Abitibi Bowater, $130 million for the timber and water "rights" the company claimed when it picked up and left Newfoundland and the workers high and dry.
The National Farmer's Union is deeply worried that the Harper government will sacrifice supply managed poultry and dairy farming in Canada and give big European agribusiness companies the right to further erode farmer rights to save, exchange and sell seeds from their crops. The move this week to kill the Wheat Board in spite of its very high rating of approval by Western wheat farmers, is a sure sign that the Harper government will sacrifice family farms to get this deal.
HERE to Read the entire article
CANADIANS, Harper is selling out country's resources and businesses out from under us, behind secret "closed door" meetings- Please educate your self about CETA and how it will effect our Country. Write to Harper and tell him that Canada is NOT a dictatorship and cannot be sold without the consent of the Canadian people!!! PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION EVERYWHERE- CANADIANS NEED TO LISTEN AND STAND UP!
Write to Harper: http://pm.gc.ca/eng/contact.as
Use your voice and sign your name!!
http://www.cwbafacts.ca/media/
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=b74d68d7-1221-4e2f-9165-d08870fc6d23
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