10 Ontario municipalities officially opposed to TILMA, Ontario-Quebec Partnership

[Stop TILMA!]

All,

With some good news from Ontario, I wanted to pass on a post from
regional organizer (Ontario, Quebec, Nanuvut) Stuart Trew who is
actively working with Council of Canadians chapters to oppose the
TILMA like Quebec-Ontario Agreement which is still under discussion.
Activists are using many of the tools developed here in BC.

In an attempt to make this list useful for people across Canada, we'll
be keeping an eye on developments to this Agreement.

Best,
Carleen

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With two recent anti-TILMA resolutions from the cities of Peterborough
and London, there are now 10 Ontario municipalities officially opposed
to TILMA, or a TILMA-like agreement with Quebec. They are (with dates
of resolutions):

1. City of St. Catharines (REQUESTED MINUTES)
2. Township of Alnwick/Haldimand (September 6, 2007)
3. Town of Pelham (September 17, 2007)
4. City of Niagara Falls (September 24, 2007)
5. Township of Hamilton (October 2, 2007)
6. City of Welland (October 2, 2007)
7. City of Port Colborne (October 9, 2007)
8. City of Thorold (October 16, 2007)
9. City of London (June 23, 2008)
10. City of Peterborough (July 7, 2008)

For complete text posted to the google site see: http://tinyurl.com/663buz

While the resolutions differed slightly from city to city, a common
thread was the need for the provincial government to consult the
provincial legislature, local governments and the public on the issue
of inter-provincial trade, much like the Saskatchewan and Yukon
governments did last year before deciding not to sign TILMA with
Alberta and B.C. Many of these cities and towns also agreed to lobby
the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, which is currently
consulting with the McGuinty government on its new Economic
Partnership Agreement with Quebec.

OQEPA, as it is sometimes called, was announced by Premiers Charest
and McGuinty on June 2, 2008, but to date we have not seen a copy of
the framework under which the provinces are working to eliminate so-
called barriers to trade and investment. The AMO, which is holding its
annual conference on August 25-28 in Ottawa, has written (http://
www.amo.on.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=200725&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=148937)
to the premier urging him “not to rush headlong into promoting or
adopting this [TILMA] agreement,” but it has not taken nearly as
strong a stance as many municipalities would like to see. In fact, the
AMO has reportedly told concerned Ontario municipal leaders not to
pursue any further action because it is handling the situation
directly with the Premier.

The recent decision by Canada’s premiers to include TILMA’s labour
mobility and dispute resolution provisions into the Agreement on
Internal Trade, without first debating it with their respective
electorates, does not bode well for those advocating a public debate
in Ontario on the new Quebec deal. But we continue to push our
municipal leaders and the AMO to insist that this debate happen in
Ontario. Meanwhile, groups like the Ontario Federation of Labour and
the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario have come out very
vocally against the Ontario-Quebec negotiations and the Council of the
Federation AIT talks.

To read the RNAO press release from last week:
http://www.rnao.org/Page.asp?PageID=924&ContentID=2527.

To read a nationally issued union press release:
http://ofl.ca/index.php/news/index_in/the_agreement_on_internal_trade_puts_qubec_model_in_jeopardy/