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SPP resources

SPP Summit - New Orleans
April 21-22, 2008

SPP Summit - Montebello
August 19-21, 2007

Teach-in
March 31 to April 1, 2007

 

Safety & regulations

News alert: The Free Trade Agreement of the Americas reborn?

September 26, 2008
Posted by Andrea Harden

President Bush met with leaders and officials from 11 countries in the Western Hemisphere on Wednesday, September 24th in New York to launch the ‘Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas’ initiative. Canada is joined by the U.S., Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Peru in this initiative. All have free trade agreements with the U.S., or one pending before Congress. In a Washington Post article, Bush hails the initiative as, “a forum where leaders can work to ensure that the benefits of trade are broadly shared.” (more...)

Transfer of Federal Labs
A Blueprint for Dismantling Public Science

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
Communications Magazine > Vol. 34, No. 2, Summer 2008

On June 6, 2008, the Treasury Board released the long-awaited report of the Independent Panel of Experts studying the transfer of federal government laboratories to academia and/or the private sector. Following up on the government’s intentions outlined in the 2007 federal budget, the panel identified five “early candidates” for transfer. The first two will be Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Canadian Cereal Research and Innovation Laboratory in Winnipeg, and Natural Resources Canada's Geosciences Laboratory in Ottawa. (more...)

Harper launches major assault on food safety, fires government scientist; regulatory harmonization blamed

August 1, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

The extent of Harper’s current assault on Canada’s food and drug inspection system is about to dwarf any previous concerns we had with the regulatory harmonization of pesticide residues. The Prime Minister is simultaneously eliminating funding for BSE testing for Canadian producers, offloading federal research facilities to the private sector and academia, and firing government scientists who dare stand up against this widespread deregulation for the sake of corporate profits. (more...)

Industry Week magazine contrasts European vs. SPP approach to chemicals regulation

July 21, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

A new article in Industry Week magazine offers an interesting and brief explanation of Europe’s new chemicals regulation laws (the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) legislation), and how they differ from the North American approach being developed through the Security and Prosperity Partnership. (more...)

U.S. threatened “thickening the border” without firm copyright reform from Canada, says Michael Geist

June 17, 2008
Posted by Brent Patterson

Michael Geist writes in today's Ottawa Citizen that in its pressure on the Canadian government to change our copyright laws, the U.S. administration made threats about “thickening the border” if it didn’t get its way. (more...)

Plan to allow airlines to police themselves should not be allowed to fly

June 13, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

The web news resource PublicValues.ca focuses this week on the issue of airline safety, an area of public policy set to be harmonized across the continent through the Security and Prosperity Partnership. (more...)

Canada’s beef industry wants to adopt weaker U.S. feed ban rules

June 4, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

According to a Canadian Press article this week, Canada’s beef industry is pressuring the Canadian government to adopt weaker U.S. feed ban rules. (more...)

Canada ducks for cover on copyright; plans to sign ACTA without parliamentary approval

May 28, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

Canada is under significant pressure from the U.S. government and the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), among other business groups, to reform its copyright legislation. International documents leaked to the press last week indicate that the Harper government is preparing to sidestep Parliament by signing a NAFTA-like international treaty that would radically change what types of currently legal activity will be cracked down on and by whom. (more...)

Harper government kills proposed GM labelling law while potentially criminalizing health products in Bill C-51

May 6, 2008
Posted by Brent Patterson and Stuart Trew

Harper talks a good line on food safety but his actions prove he cares less about your health than corporate priorities.

As reported by Greenpeace Canada on Thursday: “A private member’s bill giving consumers the right to know if the food sold in Canada contains genetically engineered (GE) ingredients was defeated in the House of Commons today by a vote of 101 to 156." (more...)

Bill C-51 and the SPP

May 6, 2008
Posted by Brent Patterson

A key initiative within the Security and Prosperity Partnership calls for the, "Identification and appropriate adoption of best practices in maintaining the safety, efficacy and quality of pharmaceutical products." (more...)

Nothing new from the Disaster Summit but dangerous SPP initiatives live on

April 29, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

The media and business consensus following last week’s Security and Prosperity Partnership summit in New Orleans is that the trilateral meeting didn’t produce anything significant. While this is partly correct – no new initiatives were announced – the ones we’re stuck with are bad enough. And while we learned a few new things about the SPP’s progress since Montebello, very few of the details ended up in the news. (more...)

Amnesty International slams SPP secrecy in letter to Bush, Calderon and Harper

April 21, 2008
Posted by Pierre-Yves Serinet

Amnesty International has sent Prime Minister Harper and his U.S. and Mexican counterparts a letter condemning the secrecy behind the SPP and demanding that it be brought to each country's respective legislatures “to facilitate meaningful public debate.” (more...)

The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), Round Four

April 16, 2008
Posted by Bruce Campbell (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)

As the NAFTA leaders and their big business counterparts gather in New Orleans a few days from now for the fourth North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summit, it is worth reflecting on its role in North American integration. (more...)

Partnership not dead by far, says Fraser Institute, which calls on Canada to “expand and speed up the SPP”

March 18, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

In an effort to demonstrate that the best defence is a good offence, a new Fraser Institute report by Alex Moens and Michael Cust, argues that the Canadian government must “expand and speed up the SPP goals,” and make a priority of “rebranding the SPP talks… as well as explaining the specific objective of the talks to the public” at the next summit in New Orleans this April or risk the trilateral partnership losing much of its momentum. (more...)


EPA discusses North American toxics harmonization at GlobalChem conference

March 18, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

More evidence today that the business-friendly SPP (like NAFTA, upon which it is built) poses an increasing risk to global as well as continental public interest policy. (more...)


Updated fact sheets on SPP available from Common Frontiers

March 14, 2008
Posted by Rich Arnold (Common Frontiers)

Common Frontiers has revised several fact sheets on ‘free trade’ to help cut through the spin and clutter around the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) – a ‘next generation’ trade deal involving Canada, Mexico and the United States. (more...)


How Bush weakened U.S. ozone rules: “Smart” regulation in action?

March 14, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

The Washington Post reports today about a last-minute intervention by President Bush that effectively weakened limits on smog-forming ozone that were contained in the Clean Air Act. (more...)


Democrats will be held accountable for NAFTA talk, says U.S. trade analyst

March 12, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

As NAFTAgate was just starting to make front-page news in Canada last week, trade analyst Chris Sands was telling Embassy magazine to take U.S. renegotiation rhetoric seriously. (more...)


Wow - A public meeting on the SPP... in Washington

February 20, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

Washington D.C. will get a rare chance to debate the SPP’s regulatory harmonization agenda next month when an economic advisory committee made up of business reps, unions and even civil society groups will actually meet to discuss the North American partnership. (more...)


Government set to announce really dumb “smart” regulations for food and consumer safety

February 19, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

According to the Globe and Mail today), “Toys, food and drugs coming into Canada may soon be subject to sweeping new regulations designed to protect consumers from the types of problems that led to massive product recalls last year.” (more...)


An "Amero" for your thoughts? Canadian dollar, regulations a “barrier” to integration, says Woodrow Wilson Center report

February 12, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

When the National Post feels strongly about an issue it doesn’t hold back. There were three – count-em, three – op-eds in today’s paper advocating deeper North American integration, including the possibility of a common currency across the continent. (more...)


Walrus article attacks the continentalist climate criminals

February 11, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

Relying on the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" google news alert for updates is kind of like fishing. Sometimes you hook a prize-winner, like this article on the recent Mexican anti-NAFTA protests by Katie Kohlstedt, or a recent news hit on the NDP's anti-SPP tour out of the University of Calgary's Gauntlet magazine. (more...)


Arnie's "green" chemicals proposal shames Montebello Agreement on toxics

February 4, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

Once again, the California state government of Arnold Schwarzenegger has stuck its neck out for the environment. Amidst federal movement toward a continental approach to toxics regulation -- the so-called "Montebello Agreement" -- California is exploring "a wholesale shift" in the way industry manufactures everything from prescription drugs to plastics, pesticides and household cleaners. (more...)


SPP prevents progress on fuel efficiency

January 18, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

While Conservative Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon's planned new federal fuel consumption standards are a welcome change from the current voluntary arrangement with auto manufacturers, it is discouraging that he is apparently letting Bush set the new standards in the name of regulatory harmonization. (more...)


Cloned food issue gets to the meat of SPP's regulatory matter

January 15, 2008
Posted by Brent Patterson

Vegetarians will probably shrug their shoulders but Canadian meat eaters may soon have another reason to hate the SPP: cloned meat. (more...)


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