The North American Union: a Timeline

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Richard Moore

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Jan 9, 2008, 3:20:05 PM1/9/08

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Original source URL:
http://www.canadians.org/publications/CP/2007/spring/DI_TIMELINE.pdf

DEEP INTEGRATION: A TIMELINE
September 11, 2001

The Canada-U.S. border closes temporarily after
terrorists attack the World Trade Center
buildings in New York
City.

September 25, 2001
Citing 9/11, Thomas d'Aquino, president of the
Business Council on National Issues (now the
Canadian Council
of Chief Executives), says that Canada "should
engage in more fundamental harmonization and
integration" with
the U.S. if we are going to keep the border open to trade.

November 26, 2001
Thomas d'Aquino and other unnamed "leaders" send
a letter to Jean Chrétien and George W. Bush
calling for a
"smart border" between Canada and the U.S. that
would "use technology to enhance both security
and the flow of
goods and people across the border."

December 12, 2001
Without legislative or public debate, Deputy
Prime Minister John Manley and Homeland Security
Director Tom
Ridge sign the Smart Border Declaration, a
30-point plan to harmonize security and
anti-terrorism regulations in
the two countries, including the creation of a
common no-fly list and passenger surveillance
system.

April 2002
The C.D. Howe Institute releases a report by
University of Toronto professor Wendy Dobson
calling for "deeper
integration" with the United States, including a
North American customs union, a common market, a
resource
sharing pact and full participation in the U.S. "war on terror."

June 28, 2002
John Manley and Tom Ridge announce progress on
the Smart Border Declaration, including "stepped
up
intelligence cooperation" and "a common approach
to screen international air passengers before
they arrive in
either country and identify those who warrant additional security scrutiny."

September 26, 2002
Canadian citizen Maher Arar is detained at New
York's John F. Kennedy Airport and held for 12
days, then
deported to Syria where he is imprisoned and
tortured for a year. In 2006, a Canadian
government commission
into the affair blames the hasty sharing of
faulty information between Canadian and U.S.
security agencies.

January 2003
The CCCE launches the "North American Security
and Prosperity Initiative," calling on the
governments of
Canada, Mexico and the U.S. to further integrate
their three economies through a "new deal." The
deal would
include a "comprehensive resource security pact"
covering agriculture, metal, minerals and energy;
"sharing the
burden of defence and security"; and "creating a
new institutional framework" for North American
integration.

April 3, 2003
The CCCE establishes a 30-member "CEO Action
Group on North American Security and Prosperity."
Its
members include leaders from Canada's largest
corporations, including EnCana, Dofasco, CAE,
General Motors,
TransCanada Pipeline, BMO, Alcan and SNC Lavalin.
"North American economic integration is well
advanced
and irreversible and now, in the face of global
terrorism, the economic and physical security of
the continent are
indivisible," said Tom d'Aquino. "Canada and the
United States should take the lead, in
consultation with Mexico,
in developing a new paradigm for North American co-operation."

The Canada-U.S. border closes temporarily after
terrorists attack the World Trade Center
buildings in New York
City.

April 2004
Paul Martin's Liberal government unveils Canada's
first-ever national security policy, called
Securing an Open
Society, which is aimed at responding to the new
"threat environment" through a "coordinated
approach with other
key partners - provinces, territories,
communities, the private sector and allies."
While building on the Smart
Border Declaration with the United States, the
new security policy contains many elements that
will end up in the
Security and Prosperity Partnership, including
increased cross-border cooperation on
intelligence, pandemic
preparedness and transportation security.

October 15, 2004
The U.S. Council on Foreign Relations launches a
tri-national "Independent Task Force on the
Future of North
America," which is vice-chaired by CCCE President
Thomas d'Aquino and co-chaired by John Manley.
Task
Force members include prominent integrationists
like Wendy Dobson, Pedro Aspe, Luis de la Calle
Pardo and
Carla Hills, all of whom will later participate
in a secret North American Forum meeting to
discuss continental
integration in Calgary, Alberta from September 12 to 14, 2006.

November 30, 2004
Following George W. Bush's first visit to Canada,
then Prime Minister Paul Martin gives birth to
the SPP by
issuing a joint statement on common security and
prosperity called, "A new partnership in North
America."

Security priorities include: "improving the
coordination of intelligence-sharing,
cross-border law enforcement and
counter-terrorism; ... increasing the security of
critical infrastructure, including
transportation, energy, and
communications networks," and to, "pursue joint
approaches to partnerships, consensus standards,
and smarter
regulations that result in greater efficiency and
competitiveness, while enhancing the health and
safety of our
citizens."

February 14, 2005
The Council of Canadians releases leaked minutes
from an October 2004 Task Force on the Future of
North
America meeting that describe bulk water exports
as a politically "hot" long term goal of
integration that should be
broached at a later date. Also being discussed by
the task force are: eliminating current NAFTA
exemptions for
culture; "crafting a North American 'resource
pact' that would allow for greater intra-regional
trade and investment
in certain non-renewable natural resources, such
as oil, gas, and fresh water"; and a "North
American brand
name" to portray North America as a sort of "club
of privileged members." There are also plans to
encourage a
North American identity among students in all three countries.

March 14, 2005
The Independent Task Force on the Future of North
America releases a preliminary report, calling
for the creation
of a North American economic and security
community by 2010. Although it didn't include
controversial "hot"
suggestions, such as a water-sharing agreement,
among the report's key recommendations are the
establishment
of a continental security perimeter, a common
external tariff, a common border pass for all
North Americans, a
North American energy and natural resources
strategy, and an annual meeting where North
American leaders
can discuss steps toward economic and security integration.

March 23, 2005
At a meeting in Waco, Texas, George W. Bush, Paul
Martin and Vicente Fox issue a joint statement
announcing
the creation of the Security and Prosperity
Partnership of North America. The tri-national
agreement, which
essentially brings Mexico into the Canada-U.S.
"partnership" announced in November 2004,
contains almost all of
the recommendations on continental economic and
security integration proposed by the Independent
Task Force
and the CCCE's Security and Prosperity Initiative before it.

October 2005
The first North American Forum brings together
U.S., Canadian and Mexican government and business
representatives to discuss issues related to
continental economic and social integration; it
is held at a secret
location in Sonoma, California. Invitees include
John Manley, Mexican ambassador to the U.S.
Carlos de Icaza,
Chevron CEO David O'Reilly, former head of the
CIA James Woolsey, and a host of U.S. policy
advisors to
George W. Bush. There is one article about the
forum in the North American media.

January 10-11, 2006
The Council of the Americas, United Postal
Service and the North American Business Committee
host a "Public-
Private Sector Dialogue on the Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America" in
Louisville, Kentucky. The
meeting is attended by 50 government officials
and business leaders from Canada, the U.S. and
Mexico,
including members of the Canadian Privy Council
Office, the Mexican Presidency, the U.S.
Department of
Homeland Security and corporate reps from
ExxonMobil, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, Tyco, and
FedEx. Attendees
discussed "marrying policy issues with business
priorities," musing that, "leadership from
governments that
recognizes the importance of business issues to
the overall social welfare empowers the private
sector to engage
substantively and pragmatically on trade and
security issues without undue deference to
political sensibilities." A
"North American Competitiveness Council" to drive the SPP process is proposed.

January 23, 2006
The Conservatives take office in Ottawa with a
minority government as Prime Minister Stephen
Harper promises
to make Canada-U.S. relations a top priority
despite polling data showing that the issue falls
well below health
care and the environment for the Canadian public.

March 31, 2006
At the second SPP summit in Cancun, Mexico,
President Bush, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and
then Mexican
President Vicente Fox announce the creation of
the North American Competitiveness Council
(NACC). This
corporate working group is charged with directing
the SPP process and includes at least 10 CEOs
from each
country, including representatives from Lockheed
Martin, Wal-Mart, General Motors, Home Depot
Canada,
Canfor and Suncor.

June 15, 2006
The NACC is officially launched at a joint press
conference held by U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Carlos
Gutierrez, Mexican Economy Minister Sergio Garcia
de Alba and Canadian Industry Minister Maxime
Bernier.

According to a report from the Council of the
Americas, the purpose of institutionalizing the
North American
business community's involvement in the SPP
process was "so that the work will continue
through changes in
administrations." Furthermore, the NACC is to
make sure that, "governments look to the private
sector to tell them
what needs to be done." According to a Canadian
government press release, the NACC "has a mandate
to
provide governments with recommendations on broad
issues such as border facilitation and
regulation, as well as
the competitiveness of key sectors including
automotive, transportation, manufacturing and
services."

August 15, 2006
The NACC meets in Washington, D.C. to hash out
priority issues for the SPP. The business leaders
decide that
the U.S. members will deal with "regulatory
convergence," the Canadians will handle "border
facilitation," and the
Mexican members will devise a plan for "energy integration."

September 12-14, 2006
The North American Forum meets for the second
time, in Banff, Alberta, this time to discuss
"demographic and
social dimensions of North American integration,"
security cooperation, and a "North American
energy strategy."

Once again, the meeting is kept secret, despite
the involvement of high-ranking military
officials, politicians and
top bureaucrats - including Stockwell Day, who
refuses to disclose the content of his speech to
the media.

November 23, 2006
The Harper government releases a financial
outlook document called Advantage Canada:
Building a Strong
Economy for Canadians. Advantage Canada praises
the SPP effort to seek regulatory convergence on
border
security. It also indicates that the federal
government is working with the provinces to speed
up and streamline
the environmental assessment process,
particularly as it affects cross-border
infrastructure projects. Furthermore,
Advantage Canada emphasizes the importance of
huge trade corridors to the economic wellbeing of
the country,
and looks to the private sector to help with all
new infrastructure projects. "For its part,
Canada's New
Government intends to establish a federal P3
office that will facilitate a broader use of P3s
in Canadian
infrastructure projects," says the document. "The
Government will also encourage the development
and use of P3
best practices by requiring that P3s be given
consideration in larger infrastructure
investments that receive federal
program funding." Under the SPP's transportation
agenda is an initiative to "examine the benefits
of an intermodal
transportation concept for north America," the
goal being to move foreign goods, mostly from
Asia, quickly
through North America to key markets in the United States.

February 8, 2007
Former industry minister Maxime Bernier and
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day join a
handful of deputy
ministers and government policy advisors at a
dinner meeting in Ottawa with members of the NACC
and CCCE,
including Tom d'Aquino. According to information
acquired by the NDP, the goal of the meeting was
to provide an
opportunity, "for Canadian members to regroup and
focus their planning" in advance of the February
23, 2007
SPP ministerial meeting, also in Ottawa.

February 23, 2007
SPP ministers, including Maxime Bernier, David
Emerson, Stockwell Day, and their U.S.
counterparts Michael
Chertoff and Carlos Gutierrez, meet with the NACC
to discuss the progress of the integration
agenda. The NACC
releases a report containing 51 recommendations,
including: "Complete negotiations, sign a new
North American
Regulatory Cooperation Framework in 2007, and
ensure consistent application of standards and
regulatory
requirements within each country." The corporate
body suggests that, "upon signature of the
framework, a North
American Regulatory Cooperation and Standards
Committee, which includes the private sector,
should be formed
to survey on a regular basis the variety of
standards and regulatory differences by industry
that impede trade and
seek to reduce the identified differences or
develop other mechanisms to lessen their impact
on the
competitiveness of North American industry."

March 19, 2007
The Conservative government releases its 2007
budget - Aspire to a Stronger, Safer, Better
Canada - in which it
promises to "improve Canada's regulatory
framework" by "moving to finalize a new modern
approach to smart
regulation," and by "working with the United
States and Mexico through the Security and
Prosperity Partnership of
North America to improve regulatory coordination
and cooperation." At the heart of the
government's strategy is
the adoption of a new Cabinet Directive on
Streamlining Regulation that will come into
effect on April 1, 2007.

Budget 2007 provides $9 million over two years to implement this initiative.

March 30-April 1, 2007
Over 1,500 people converge on Ottawa for
Integrate This! Challenging the Security and
Prosperity Partnership of
North America, a public teach-in on deep
integration organized by the Council of
Canadians, the Canadian Centre
for Policy Alternatives, the Canadian Labour
Congress, Common Frontiers and a host of other
groups.

April 1, 2007
The Government of Canada's new Cabinet Directive
on Streamlining Regulation comes into effect,
requiring that
all government departments take into
consideration the "cost or savings to government,
business, or Canadians
and the potential impact on the Canadian economy
and its international competitiveness," as well
as the "potential
impact on other federal departments or agencies,
other governments in Canada, or on Canada's
foreign affairs"
before moving ahead with new rules on everything
from food and drugs to pesticides to the
environment and
public health. The directive moves regulation in
Canada further away from the precautionary
principle and more in
line with the U.S. focus on risk assessment and voluntary compliance.

April 13, 2007
Leaked documents acquired by the Council of
Canadians reveal that bulk water exports from
Canada to the
United States are in fact being discussed in
relation to the SPP. The North American Future
2025 Project, which
is led by the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and
International Studies, the Conference Board of
Canada and the
Mexican Centro de Investigación y Docencia
Económicas, involves a series of "closed-door
meetings" on North
American integration dealing with a number of
highly contentious issues including bulk water
exports, a joint
security perimeter and a continental resource pact.

April 24, 2007
The Council of Canadians holds an "open-door"
meeting in Calgary to discuss the threat of bulk
water exports
posed by North American integration and the SPP
in light of closed-door meetings of government
officials and
business reps to discuss continental water management happening that same week.

April 27, 2007
North American transport ministers, including
Conservative MP Lawrence Cannon, meet in Arizona
for an SPP
meeting, "in order to confirm and advance our
commitment to developing coordinated, compatible
and
interconnected national transportation systems."
Developing an "intermodal transportation concept
for North
America" is an SPP initiative. A key milestones
under that initiative commits transport ministers
to, "work toward
establishing an intermodal corridor work plan and
a Memorandum of Cooperation pilot project." The
Arizona
meeting, which the ministers describe as the
first in a series, appears to be the beginning of
this pilot project.

May 1, 2007
Council of Canadians National Chairperson Maude
Barlow addresses the Commons Standing Committee on
International Trade regarding the SPP, energy and bulk water exports.

May 7, 2007
CanWest News Service reports that Canada is set
to raise its limits on pesticide residues on
fruit and vegetables
as "part of an effort to harmonize Canadian
pesticide rules with those of the United States,
which allows higher
residue levels for 40 per cent of the pesticides
it regulates." According to the article, which
appeared in papers
across the country, "the effort is being
fast-tracked as an initiative under the Security
and Prosperity Partnership
(SPP), a wide-ranging plan to streamline
regulatory and security protocols across North
America." The article
proves that regulatory harmonization as spelled
out in NAFTA and the SPP puts downward pressure on
regulations and that higher standards are rarely
if ever mutually adopted between harmonizing
parties.

May 10, 2007
Conservative MPs storm out of parliamentary
hearings into the SPP after the Tory chair of the
Commons
Standing Committee on International Trade
interrupts a presentation from Council of
Canadians board member
Gordon Laxer linking the SPP to tar sands
production. Committee chair Leon Benoit can't see
the link between
the SPP and energy security for Canada, despite
"energy integration" being a key priority of the
SPP and of the
NACC. The meeting continues after all but one Conservative MP leaves the room.

June 11, 2007
Former industry minister Maxime Bernier, along
with his chief of staff and several other policy
advisors, meets
with the three national NACC secretariats at the
Americas Competitiveness Forum in Atlanta,
Georgia. According
to information acquired by the NDP, the minister
received feedback on the NACC's recommendations
and heard
its next steps.

June 18, 2007
Transport Canada's "no-fly" list, called
Passenger Protect, comes into effect. Airlines
begin checking passenger
names against a list of people deemed so
dangerous to the flight that they should not be
allowed to board.

Passengers who appear on the list may appeal
mistakes to an "office of reconsideration."
Security experts agree
that Canada's list will inevitably merge with the
much larger U.S. "no-fly" list - a key priority
of the SPP's security
agenda. Canada's airlines have already been using
the U.S. list, which contains almost 500,000
names, and
news reports from late May 2007 indicate they
will continue to rely on it rather than Passenger
Protect.

July 31, 2007
Former industry minister Maxime Bernier and
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day attend a
working lunch with
eight of the 10 Canadian NACC members plus Tom
d'Aquino of the CCCE, according to information
obtained by
the NDP. Topics for discussion include
"expectations for [the] North American Leaders'
Summit and Canadian
priorities," the "role of the NACC," and an
update on the Prime Minister's recent visit to
Latin America.

August 17, 2007
In a sure sign that opposition to the SPP is
making an impact, the Liberal party releases a
report called, "Strong
and Free: The Liberal Blueprint for the North
American Leaders Summit at Montebello, Quebec."
The report
incorporates the Council of Canadians' demands on
the SPP, including "disclosing the complete list
of SPP
working groups, their contact persons and
participating membership [and] requiring them to
provide opportunities
for public input." Liberal party leader Stephane
Dion promises, "Should the Prime Minister fail to
level with
Canadians, we will table a resolution calling on
the government to inform Canadians of the work
and negotiations
of the SPP, and to report to the House of Commons
to allow for parliamentary scrutiny and a full
and informed
debate when the Parliament reconvenes."

August 19, 2007
Thousands of people take to the streets of Ottawa
to protest the SPP on the eve of the third annual
Leaders
Summit taking place the following day in
Montebello, Quebec. According to later reports by
the CBC, the Ottawa
Police Service spent $3.7 million on security for
the day. Following the protest, the Council of
Canadians brings
hundreds of people together at a public forum at
the University of Ottawa where they hear about
deep integration
from civil society representatives from Canada,
the U.S. and Mexico, as well as from
representatives of all four
major opposition parties.

August 20, 2007
Like the day before, thousands of protesters head
to Montebello where they confront almost as many
police
officers surrounding the Fairmont hotel where
Prime Minister Harper is meeting with Presidents
Bush and
Calderón. News reports several weeks later peg
security costs for the Quebec police force alone
at over $7
million. Harper refers to the gathering outside
as "sad," while CCCE President Tom d'Aquino
likens the protesters
to barbarians at the gates. "I do not say to
myself, 'If I don't get an hour with the prime
minister in the next six
months, I'm going to go out and protest and
reject the system outright,'" he tells CBC News.
"I don't do that
because civilized human beings - those who
believe in democracy - don't do that." Later that
night, d'Aquino and
the CCCE spend another hour or two with Industry
Minister Jim Prentice, Finance Minister Jim
Flaherty and Bank
of Canada Governor David Dodge, as well as
several other deputy ministers, foreign officials
and NACC
members, at a dinner in Ottawa, according to
information obtained by the NDP. Council of
Canadians activist and
filmmaker Paul Manley posts a video of the day's
events on YouTube that depicts what look like
three rock-
wielding undercover police officers - agents provocateurs - in the crowd.

August 21, 2007
The third annual SPP "Leaders Summit" wraps up in
Montebello with a joint statement by Prime
Minister Harper
on progress and next steps. But the headlines are
about the YouTube video depicting agents
provocateurs. (The
Quebec police force at first denies that there
were undercover agents then admits it in an
embarrassing flip-flop.)
Harper makes light of the protests by claiming
the leaders were discussing jellybeans, while at
the same time he
announces four major new SPP developments: an
Intellectual Property Action Plan; the
long-anticipated (by the
business community) Regulatory Cooperation
Framework; a North American Plan for Avian and
Pandemic
Influenza; and a treaty-level Agreement for
Cooperation in Energy Science and Technology."
The Canadian
Centre for Policy Alternatives will later release
a report on regulatory harmonization with the
United States in
which it notes that a side-agreement - Regulatory
Cooperation in the Area of Chemicals - that
appears on the
U.S. SPP website was not announced by the Canadian government.

October 12 - 14, 2007
The third annual North American Forum takes place
in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Like previous years,
the guest list
and agenda were kept secret but the Canadian
Labour Congress receives a copy of the latter.
According to the
leaked agenda, this year's forum was called,
"North American Cooperation and Community."
Leonard Edwards,
deputy minister of foreign affairs, moderated a
session on the "Strategic dimensions of the North
American
security and prosperity partnerships," while Tom
d'Aquino spoke on a panel addressing the topic,
"Investing in
competitiveness: new ideas and options for
infrastructure, borders and business -
Public/private partnerships,
municipal bonds and border development."

October 16, 2007
The Munk Centre's Project on Water Issues
releases a report by Andrew Nikiforuk called, "On
the Table: Water,
Energy and North American Integration."
Confirming repeated statements by the Council of
Canadians, the report
states that: "There is now a formal framework for
discussing Canada's water as a trade item - the
Security and
Prosperity Partnership (SPP) - which met most
recently in August 2007 at Montebello, Quebec...
While this
summit focused publicly on other continent-wide
issues, the concept of trade in water has
remained quietly but
persistently present under the larger banner of trade relations."

November 29, 2007
A Federal Court judge rules that Canada must
reconsider the Safe Third Country Agreement it
signed with the
United States in 2004, because, "Washington
flouts conventions meant to safeguard immigrants
against torture in
their homelands," according to a Globe and Mail
article. The Safe Third Country agreement was a
cornerstone of
the Smart Border Declaration of 2001 and a major
component of the plan to harmonize refugee and
immigration
policies. The court gives both parties (the
Government of Canada and the Canadian Council for
Refugees) until
January 14 to make and respond to submissions for an appeal.

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