PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
August 5, 2009

Federal government, Premiers have no mandate to renegotiate NAFTA by stealth, says Council of Canadians

Regina – Canada’s premiers, in Regina this week for the annual Council of the Federation meeting, must “reject any federal proposals that would eliminate or restrict their ability to ensure that public procurement policies maximize benefits to the local and Canadian economies,” says a new joint statement signed by over a dozen labour and civil society groups, including the Council of Canadians.

Premiers are expected to decide this week on a federal proposal which would set the stage for including sub-national procurement in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

“Such a step would abolish the rights of local and provincial governments to support local or Canadian suppliers, set minimum local content rules for materials or services on major projects, adopt ethical and environmental purchasing policies, enforce commitments to hire workers locally, or require companies winning public contracts to reinvest a portion of revenues or profits in Canadian communities,” says the joint statement, made public today.

It is currently legal for provincial and municipal governments to put “Buy Canadian” and other conditions, such as environmental sustainability initiatives, on public spending. Highly popular “Buy American” policies at the state and federal level are over 75 years old and not likely to go away no matter what the provinces decide this week.

“The usual platitudes about fighting protectionism and promoting ‘free trade’ are unhelpful when the premiers are talking about voluntarily giving up their democratic right and duty to spend public money in the public interest,” says Stuart Trew, trade campaigner with the Council of Canadians, in Regina this week for the Council of the Federation meeting. “Neither the federal nor provincial governments have offered Canadians a single good reason why they should gamble away this right without any guarantees for Canadian manufacturers or municipalities.”

The Council of Canadians and Canadian Union of Public Employees wrote to all premiers in June asking them to reject new restrictions on procurement, whether in an adjunct to NAFTA or in a new “deepened economic partnership agreement” with Europe.

“The premiers have no mandate to renegotiate NAFTA by stealth,” says Trew. “We will be helping solicit more signatures for the joint procurement statement, especially from municipal governments who stand to lose so much and who have not been consulted.”

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For more information:
Stuart Trew (in Regina), trade campaigner, Council of Canadians: (647.222.9782), strew@canadians.org.

Click here to read the statement on public procurement.