Published in the Telegram, January 23, 2015
Those of us who oppose the CETA trade agreement between the EU and
Canada are grateful that CETA is finally making front page headlines, even if
it is for the wrong reasons. If you listen carefully to the words of Ministers
Hutchings and King, nowhere do they actually express any doubts about CETA
itself. It’s their perceived betrayal by Ottawa over the fisheries development
fund that fuels their indignation.
I don’t doubt that our province was misled by the federal
government. But have they considered they've been misled in other ways about
CETA? Independent
research has indicated that CETA will lead to a decline in GDP, exports and
jobs, particularly in the manufacturing and processing sectors. But far more
alarming than that is the twisty legal language in CETA that will allow
transnational corporations to sue us in special, offshore, investor-state
tribunals (where Canadian law counts for nothing) if government initiatives
risk interfering with future corporate profits.
We shouldn’t underestimate the scope and size of lawsuit payouts.
In, 2013, an off-shore investor-state tribunal ordered Libya to pay US$935
million to corporate investors for “lost profits” from “real and certain lost
opportunities” on a canceled tourism project – even though the corporate
investors had only invested $5 million in the project and construction had
never even started.
Could that kind of injustice happen to us under CETA? Our province
has already been the subject of two NAFTA investor-state lawsuits compliments
of Abitibi-Bowater and Exxon-Mobil. We are especially vulnerable, given
that oil and mining companies are the most frequent users of anti-government
lawsuits worldwide. Then there is the fact that over
half of the investor-state lawsuits worldwide have been instigated by European
corporations. CETA is going to give these corporations access to us.
Given that the federal government has stated that in future they
will claw back costs and damages from provinces that incur lawsuits, you would
think our government would be worried about being sued under CETA. And what
about the chilling effect that the mere fear of lawsuits will have on future
government initiatives to protect the environment or local economies? Have they
considered that?
To be fair, other provincial legislatures are guilty of similar
complacency about CETA's impact on democratic decision making. However, our government
is now in the unique position of having experienced firsthand how underhanded
the Harper government can be in promoting the benefits of CETA. They could take
the high road and use this realization as an opportunity to open up the whole
CETA can of worms to public debate. They could challenge other provinces to
re-examine the extent to which CETA will allow huge corporations to undermine
their ability to govern.
That would be splendid leadership.
But will they do that? Or will they simply focus on their grievance with the
federal government over the fisheries investment fund? What’s it going to be?
Continued theater of the David vs. Goliath style – or genuine debate,
discussion and consultation about the main event with us, the people who elected
them?
