MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday June 14, 2006

Competiveness Council formalizes power of big business leaders, says Council of Canadians

Yesterday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper named ten corporate executives to the new North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) formed at the meeting of North American leaders that took place in Cancun, Mexico this past March. “This will make the three governments directly answerable to business leaders, giving them unprecedented power,” says Jean-Yves Lefort, trade campaigner at the Council of Canadians.

The NACC will meet annually with ministers from each country and will engage with senior government officials on an ongoing basis to make recommendations on a wide range of issues affecting the economies of the three countries.

The NACC does not include any representation from small businesses. Nine of the ten appointees represent large corporations that are members of the powerful Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), which has been aggressively promoting the Security and Prosperity Partnership aimed at integrating Canadian policies with those of the United States. Three of the ten appointees - Dominic D'Alessandro (Manulife Financial); Paul Desmarais, Jr. (Power Corporation of Canada) and Richard George (Suncor Energy Inc.) - also sit on the Executive Committee of the CCCE.

“This latest development clearly puts business leaders in the driver’s seat and gives them the green light to press forward for a North American model for business security and prosperity,” says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “How truly accountable is the Harper government to the Canadian people when it gives preferential treatment to the big-business community in the design of its policies.”

The Council of Canadians is opposed to the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership. The organization warns that it would be a mistake for Canada to forge deeper economic, foreign policy, and resource ties with the United States under its most aggressive government in modern history.

“Given the negative consequences of the North American Free Trade Agreement on Canada - the undemocratic Chapter 11 provision, the loss of control over our energy resources, the definition of water as a tradable good - we do not want more of the same through the Security and Prosperity Partnership,” says Lefort.

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For more information, contact:
Dylan Penner, Media Officer, Council of Canadians: (613) 233-4487, ext. 249; 1-800-387-7177, ext. 249; .