SASKATOON ACTION ALERT: Let’s Keep Saskatoon out of CETA (Canada-European Union free trade deal)

Last week, Saskatoon’s executive committee voted 5 to 4 on a motion calling on the provincial government to exclude municipalities from the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). On February 6, the decision goes to full council. We need to show Saskatoon councillors we support the motion and ask them to vote yes!

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

We need Saskatoon residents to call or email their councillors letting them know they support the motion, which you can read about in the Star-Phoenix by clicking here. Find their phone numbers and emails addresses below, along with a sample message.

WHAT IS CETA?

CETA is bad news for municipalities. It's not really a trade deal at all. It would be more accurate to say the goal of CETA is to re-write the rules on how governments, including cities like Saskatoon, set policy on everything from buy local food supports to environmental protection to job creation and development strategies. CETA is all about improving corporate profits by limiting our social and economic options as communities. It threatens our public services, our jobs and the cost of our drugs and health care.

Some supporters of the deal look to the New West Partnership that the Wall government signed without the permission of voters, who objected to the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) with Alberta and British Columbia. They say Saskatoon has already given up its spending and policy making powers in that bad deal, so why worry about CETA? Signing the NWP was a mistake for Saskatchewan but going a step further in the CETA will only make matters worse.

For example, a Saskatoon city manager’s report on the CETA motion before the City claims, as the federal government does, that municipal policies and regulations won’t be affected by the EU deal. This is not accurate. According to CETA documents made public January 18, only existing municipal measures will be protected and then only weakly. Future municipal policy and regulations that does not agree with strong investor guarantees in CETA can be challenged in trade disputes or taken to investment tribunals by corporations. Services provided at the municipal level, such as drinking and wastewater, waste management, public transit, are especially vulnerable to these kinds of trade challenges under CETA.

CETA's not about trade. It's not about prosperity. Just like the NWP it’s about empowering the rich and undermining democracy. And now that Europe is in financial crisis, the Harper government's overly optimistic predictions of economic benefits from the deal have become outright fantasy. Canada will be the net loser if CETA is signed.

TAKE ACTION: ON FEBRUARY 6, LET'S VOTE TO KEEP SASKATOON OUT OF CETA!

Between now and February 6, please call your councillor to let them know you support the Saskatoon motion exclude municipalities from the CETA. We've included some possible talking points below in a sample letter. You can email a version of this letter to your councillor also, but phoning is best. For more talking points, please consult our TAKE ACTION TOOLKIT: TAKE COMMUNITIES OUT OF CETA from the Council of Canadians' System Change website.

For more information on CETA, visit www.canadians.org/CETA.

SAMPLE LETTER/TALKING POINTS FOR PHONE CONVERSATION

I'm calling/writing to you about the Canada-EU trade agreement, which you'll be discussing at your February 6 council meeting. I understand there's a motion coming before council which requests that the Province of Saskatchewan exclude municipalities like Saskatoon from the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

I want you to know I fully support this motion. Cities like Saskatoon need the freedom to be able to support local jobs and sometimes give a boost to local or regional businesses and industries when and where it makes sense. They should be able to define what value for money means – not have it defined for them in a trade agreement that councillors had no role in negotiating.

A lot of times value for money comes down to the bottom line costs. Other times you get more value out of public spending by keeping people in the community working, increasing the city's tax base, or reducing impacts on the environment. The Canada-EU trade deal, if it applied to Saskatoon, would put too many restrictions on the economic development options of the city. It doesn't make sense.

I am also very concerned about newly leaked documents that show that municipal governments will not be fully protected from CETA. For example, no provincial government has excluded drinking water and wastewater services from their offers to the EU. Meanwhile, EU member states insisted on protecting the water sector. Canadian municipalities will be vulnerable to trade and investment challenges by corporations who just want to increase their profits in water services. It’s a risk Saskatoon should seek to eliminate by demanding that water services be excluded from CETA.

Once again, please vote for the motion on CETA coming before you on February 6. By doing so, Saskatoon would join over 35 cities, towns, school boards or associations across Canada to raise concerns about the deal. The City of Hamilton, Ontario was the last to do so by requesting that the province exclude Hamilton altogether from CETA.

SASKATOON CITY COUNCILLORS

Mayor – His Worship Donald J. Atchison, Phone: (306) 975-3202, online email form
Ward 1 - Councillor Darren Hill, Home Phone: (306) 384-9273; email darren.hill@saskatoon.ca
Ward 2 - Councillor Pat Lorje, Home Phone: (306) 384-2735; email pat.lorje@saskatoon.ca
Ward 3 - Councillor Ann Iwanchuk, Cell Phone: (306) 380-6870; email ann.iwanchuk@saskatoon.ca
Ward 4 - Councillor Myles Heidt, Business Phone: (306) 384-5900; email myles.heidt@saskatoon.ca
Ward 5 - Councillor Randy Donauer, Home Phone: (306) 244-6634; email randy.donauer@saskatoon.ca
Ward 6 - Councillor Charlie Clark, Cell Phone: (306) 229-4447; email charlie.clark@saskatoon.ca
Ward 7 - Councillor Mairin Loewen, Cell Phone: (306) 229-5298; email mairin.loewen@saskatoon.ca
Ward 8 - Councillor Glen Penner, Home Phone: (306) 249-4911; email glen.penner@saskatoon.ca
Ward 9 - Councillor Tiffany Paulsen, Home Phone: (306) 955-0563; email tiffany.paulsen@saskatoon.ca
Ward 10 - Councillor Bev Dubois, Business Phone: (306) 652-2576; email bev.dubois@saskatoon.ca