The SPP Is a Waste of Energy
Workers denounce integration at landmark meeting
The Harper government made many
pronouncements about the need for more
energy “cooperation” with the U.S. and
Mexico during the Montebello summit in August. But a group of people with a
significant stake in these discussions has
never been consulted – energy workers
from the three countries.
Like all other citizens, energy workers
were excluded from participating
in the SPP negotiations. Instead, they
took matters into their own hands, and
convened a tri-national meeting on the
eve of the Montebello summit, bringing
together energy workers from Canada,
the U.S. and Mexico.
Energy integration is a cornerstone of
the SPP, and participants in the workers’
meeting were quick to denounce the
SPP’s agenda for the complete integration
and deregulation of the three countries’
electricity grids. Participants also
condemned the integration of natural
gas systems, the call for more imports of liquefied natural gas, the proposed
fivefold increase in Canadian tar sands
production, and any attempts to privatize
Mexico’s national energy industries.
The workers described the SPP’s corporate-driven agenda as misguided and
unsustainable. They see it as a threat to
the needs of families, workers and the
environment – not to mention national
and community economic development.
At the meeting, representatives of energy
workers unions, social justice networks
and civil society organizations affirmed
the right of democratically elected governments
to establish national and local
energy policies, to defend and promote
public ownership of energy production
and distribution, and to regulate the private
sector in favour of the public interest.
They concluded the meeting with a
call for democratic, sustainable national
development of the energy resources in
Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Jean-Yves LeFort, the Council of Canadians’
Energy Campaigner, attended the
tri-national energy workers’ meeting. Click here to
read the energy workers’ full statement.
Photo credit: Christina Riley
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