Quebec City must protect itself against CETA
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Quebec Hebdo | 9 May 2012
Freely translated by Anoosha Boralessa in April 2015. Not reviewed or revised by bilaterals.org or any other organization or person.
Quebec City must protect itself against CETA
Behind closed doors, the Government of Canada is currently negotiating a bilateral free trade treaty with the European Union : the comprehensive economic and commercial agreement (CETA). Several actors of the local economy and community sector, trade unions, representatives and ordinary citizens have expressed their concerns on this agreement over recent months.
Following the “tradition of secrecy” established since the first agreements of this type, the civil society and the great majority of representatives have stayed away from the negotiations and have not been informed of what is being negotiated. The only material information that we can obtain on this agreement is what is leaked.
However, CETA goes much further than NAFTA where globalization of markets is concerned. It could have important consequences for social organization weakening even more the democratic weight of civil society against big business.
Indeed, information that has been published by the Reseau quebecois sur l’integration continentale (RQIC) demonstrates that this agreement will include a clause on investment protection similar to the one in the controversial NAFTA Ch 11. This clause permits businesses to pursue different levels of government for loss of expectation of profits when democratically elected public authorities adopt laws or regulations to further protect the environment or social acquis and these laws have an impact on their business activities. Disputes are settled in private before supranational administrative tribunals and nothing compels governments to divulge the amounts at stake to the citizens even if public money is involved.
In addition to this controversial provision that has given rise to more than 30 claims against Canada since NAFTA was ratified, CETA increases pressure on the public markets of Quebec and Federal Canada. The public markets represent all the procurements in goods or services made by different levels of government, state companies, the public and quasi-public sectors.
These public markets that represent not less than 179 billion dollars in Canada and 28.7 billion dollars for the Government of Quebec alone have until recently been excluded from free trade treaties for obvious reasons. Indeed they represent powerful economic leverage, allowing the government to favor, for example, local enterprises and products that are more ecological or socially responsible. Their integration in CETA will ensure that henceforth public tenders will be open to European businesses and notably subject to strict rules that have not been determined democratically. This will prevent encouraging local benefits (work, contents etc).
Water multinationals such as Veolia and Suez are going to be able to fit increasingly into water management of Quebec, given that potable water services and sanitation are not excluded from the negotiations. All this paves the way for these services to be privatized. Now throughout the world, the privatization of these services due to tariff increases, additional costs of municipalities, water of a lesser quality, restricted access to information for citizens and for service cuts. For these reasons, municipalities in several European countries, that had chosen to privatize these services have now chosen to remunicipalize them. CETA’s provision for investor protection means returning to public services following privatization will be very difficult and costly, almost impossible.
Because elements that pertain to municipal competence are included in this agreement without the cities being invited to the negotiating table, 50 Canadian cities have adopted resolutions regarding CETA.
Moreover, it is notable that Quebec City adopted in 1998 and in 2005, similar resolutions opposing international economic agreements encroaching on the heads of municipal competence. It must, out of concern for coherence and prudence, take similar action regarding CETA. We urge the Executive Council of Quebec City to accede to the demand of groups of civil society that wish to have a meeting in order to make it part of their concerns and to propose a model of resolution.
Following the example of Burnaby, Saskatoon, Kingston, Toronto, Montreal and Baie-Comeau, it is imperative that Quebec adopts a resolution demanding a complete carve out from this bilateral agreement. The municipal representatives must retain all their levers of action. The quality of life of citizens and democratic accountability must take precedence over the financial ambitions of a handful of multinationals.
Signatories :
– Les Amis de la Terre de Québec
– Regroupement d’éducation populaire en action communautaire (REPAC 03-12)
– Conseil régional de l’environnement Capitale-Nationale (CRE 03)
– Nature Québec
– Comité logement d’aide aux locataires (CLAL)
– Association pour la Défense des Droits sociaux du Québec métropolitain (ADDS-QM)
– Association de consommateurs en économie familiale (ACEF de Québec)
– Carrefour d’animation et de participation à un monde ouvert (CAPMO)
– La Marée des mots
– Conseil Central de la CSN de Québec et Chaudière-Appalaches
– Coalition québécoise pour une gestion responsable de l’eau EAU SECOURS !
– Conseil des Canadiens
– Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique
– Groupe de simplicité volontaire de Québec
– Corporation de défense des droits sociaux (CDDS) Lotbinière
– Maison Communautaire Missinak
– Regroupement des organismes communautaires (ROC) 03
– Regroupement des groupes de femmes de la région de la Capitale-nationale (RGF 03)
– Développement et Paix
