ACTION ALERT: Demand permanent exemption for municipalities from CETA!

September 17, 2010

The federal government, provinces and territories are currently negotiating a “Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement” (CETA) with the European Union that could significantly undermine municipal autonomy and democracy. But municipalities themselves are not at the table. Not surprisingly, they are increasingly uneasy about, and in some cases opposed to CETA.

For more information about the Canada-EU trade negotiations, including a legal opinion by Steven Shrybman on the impact of CETA on cities, visit: www.canadians.org/CETA

Both the City of Burnaby and the District of Logan Lake have proposed resolutions on CETA to this year’s meeting of the Union of BC Municipalities, which takes place September 27 – October 1. A resolutions committee has recommended that the UBCM endorse a consolidated version, which would ask the UBCM to 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.

A few weeks ago, the Council of Canadians, Canadian Union of Public Employees and B.C. Federation of Labour jointly wrote to all B.C. municipalities encouraging them to endorse this resolution, with an emphasis on the need to keep all municipalities out of the CETA.

Act Today! Please take some time this week and next week to email and call your city councilors and encourage them to support the Logan Lake resolution.

You can get them a copy of Steven Shrybman’s legal opinion about the impact of CETA on cities if they need more information at www.civicgovernance.ca/files/uploads/FINAL-Shrybman_CETA_report.pdf.