Oppose TILMA talks at the Western Premiers’ Conference, May 28
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Stop TILMA!
May 27, 2008, 5:48:49 PM5/27/08
to TILMA-BC
All,
There are a few things in this email:
1) follow up from CUPE's legal opinion release last week;
2) Action Alert to oppose the Western Premiers' Conference TOMORROW
and
3) Full text of the The Globe And Mail piece which appeared in
Saturday's edition (May 24, 2008), titled 'Ontario, Quebec: Just say
no to TILMA'.
Note that the StopTILMA toolkit has just been uploaded to the
StopTILMA site and can be accessed at:
http://tinyurl.com/5r9juu
(it is a 4mb file, so please be patient while this page loads)
Best,
Carleen
1) As noted last week, CUPE BC issued statement with the release of a
legal opinion by Steven Shrybman’s stating, “The Trade, Investment and
Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) between British Columbia and Alberta—
and the B.C. legislation enabling it—violate the Canadian constitution
by usurping the role of judges and endowing cabinet with too much
power, says a leading trade law expert in a legal opinion released
today. In the written opinion, Sack Goldblatt Mitchell lawyer Steven
Shrybman says that the TILMA and the BC Liberal government’s Bill 32
“confront basic constitutional norms, including the rule of law and
democracy”, by trumping the authority of both judges and
parliaments.”
I've included CFAX's comment on TILMA after the release of the legal
opinion, at the bottom of this email.
You can see the media conference in Victoria here:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6519828996242808803
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Tomorrow premiers from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and
Manitoba will meet in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to discuss many
aspects, importantly TILMA being one of them.
People of the Western provinces unite to take action – and quick! On
May 28, the premiers of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and
Manitoba will meet in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan for a discussion on
issues of concern to our communities. The conference, involving golf
games and dinner parties, is intended to allow the premiers to build
relationships and connections between the provinces. Despite the
relaxed atmosphere, the premiers will be tackling controversial issues
including the topics of Smart & Secure Borders, Energy Security,
Environmental Sustainability, Rural and Remote Communities and
Competitiveness. You can read more about this agenda at
http://www.scics.gc.ca/new_e.html
Participating in the discussion are representatives from PNWER - a
regional planning and facilitation organization that has been mulling
over TILMA - and David Wilkins the US Ambassador to Canada. Please
see an action alert issued today by Shelia Muxlow of the Council of
Canadians in the Prairies region. Please forward on to anyone you know
in the west.
Furthermore, Roger Gibbons, president and CEO of the right-wing Canada
West Foundation wrote an option editorial exposing the hopes of big
business for the promotion of the Trade, Investment and Labour
Mobility Agreement (TILMA), which you can read at
http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/forum/story.html?id=77e3bd8e-73db-4ee7-b84f-2684d31d2a96
.
We need action now to remind our premiers about their responsibilities
as representatives for the public interest! We need to react to the
push by the business community for the full implementation and
expansion of TILMA as it poses a great risk to our democratic,
economic, environmental and future securities. TILMA legislates the
right of corporations and powerful individuals to sue provincial
governments over protection measures for the public interest. Local
purchasing policies, agricultural zones, pesticide bans, and even
publicly owned industries can be threatened under TILMA with the
charge of being a ‘trade barrier’. To uphold their own safety and
build sustainable economies for future generations, communities must
be able to propose and enforce unique regulations and policies without
the threat of being sued by interests for private gain.
TAKE ACTION
Please take a moment to call or write your premier and feel free to
use the following talking points and/or letter.
By telephone:
Hello,
I would like to leave a comment for Premier ….. about the Trade,
Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement. I was informed that Roger
Gibbons, president and CEO from the Canada West Foundation, publicly
encouraged the premiers of Alberta and B.C. to promote the merits of
TILMA at the Western Premiers conference this week.
I would like to express my concern about TILMA as an unconstitutional
piece of legislation that undermines local decision making powers and
enables corporations to take money from public taxes. TILMA has never
been debated publicly although it is a far reaching piece of
legislation. TILMA is a modification to the Agreement on Internal
Trade that entrenches a dispute settlement mechanism similar to
chapter 11 in NAFTA, enabling corporations and powerful individual
seeking profit to sue governments over public protection measures that
impede on their money making opportunities.
It is wrong to privilege business so much in an economy when so many
things are interconnected. As we have seen through chapter 11 of the
NAFTA agreement, a dispute mechanism that enables challenges to be
brought against public protection measures limits the power of the
public to enforce unique policies that uphold the health of our
communities and the sustainability of our economies like agricultural
protection zones and local purchasing policies.
If there is going to be a new agreement on inter-provincial trade, it
needs to uphold the public interest of diversity, sustainability, and
health not one that upholds the big business interest of homogenized
markets, unsustainable growth and profitable toxic waste.
I want to see the TILMA off the table as a future possibility for
trade among the Western provinces. Thank you for your time.
By e-mail:
Dear (your premier)
I am writing you with concern about the topic of TILMA being discussed
at the Western Premiers’ Conference. It has been suggested that the
Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement signed between British
Columbia and Alberta is something that will be beneficial to the
provincial economy. I am writing to tell you I am certain it will not
be beneficial to those of us who do not own multi-million dollar
companies. TILMA is distinctly set up to privilege big business and
undermine local initiatives to promote sustainable small scale
business and economies. This is going to enable big business to buy
out smaller business and homogenize the markets within which they can
make a profit. Grass roots initiatives to ban pesticides, protect
green-space or promote a local purchasing policy can be challenged
under TILMA as ‘trade barriers’ that inhibit the making of a profit.
Additionally TILMA was not discussed publicly or debated by elected
officials. If we are to modify our existing Agreement on Internal
Trade than let it be done publicly with a full legislative debate and
public information campaign.
In a democracy we expect to be protected by our elected officials, not
manipulated to serve the interests of a few.
Sincerely,
<your name>
Contact Information:
Premier of Manitoba: Gary Doer
Phone: 1.204.945.3714
E-Mail: pre...@leg.gov.mb.ca
Premier of Saskatchewan: Brad Wall
Phone: 1.306.787.9433
E-Mail: pre...@gov.sk.ca
Premier of Alberta: Ed Stelmach
Phone: 1.780.427.2251
E-mail: pre...@gov.ab.ca
Premier of British Columbia: Gordon Campbell
Phone: 1.604.660.2421
E-mail: pre...@gov.bc.ca pre...@gov.bc.ca
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Ontario, Quebec: Just say no to TILMA
The Globe And Mail
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Page: A13
Section: Column
Byline: Murray Campbell
Source: mcam...@globeandmail.com
It is cruel and unusual punishment that the two prominent issues in
Dalton McGuinty's second term of government are fiscal equalization
and interprovincial trade.
Arcane? That's not the half of it. Both subjects are mind-numbingly
esoteric and scream out "hold the back page." But, alas, both trade
and fiscal relations are fundamental to the future of Ontario and
Canada. The fiscal issue ebbs and flows according to whether federal
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty took his cranky pills that day, but the
interprovincial trade file just keeps plugging along.
Indeed, it's back on the agenda at next month's joint meeting of the
Quebec and Ontario cabinets and it's certain that the two governments
will announce measures to eradicate barriers to trade and growth. Mr.
McGuinty and Quebec Premier Jean Charest have been pursuing this goal
for four years and intensified their efforts last year by appointing
negotiators to strike a deal between the two provinces.
The agreements unveiled June 2 in Quebec City will likely deal with
certification and other credential issues and that's harmless enough.
But the pursuit of the "expanded accord" that the premiers want has
only begun and many in the hardy band of people who monitor trade
issues in Canada believe, like Elmer Fudd, that "there's something
scwewy going on around here."
Their fear is that Ontario and Quebec are pursuing something similar
to the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement that British
Columbia and Alberta struck in 2006 and which will take effect next
spring. Critics charge that this TILMA deal is a Trojan horse pushed
by businesses to restrict the regulatory powers of provincial and
municipal governments. They point to a "general rule" of the deal that
there should be "no obstacles" to freer trade and the right it gives
businesses to sue governments for up to $5-million "on any matter"
involving the interpretation or application of the deal.
The quasi-judicial tribunal to hear disputes is one reason why lawyer
Steven Shrybman concluded this week that TILMA and the B.C.
legislation enabling it violate the Canadian Constitution by usurping
the role of judges and endowing cabinet with too much power. He wrote
his brief for the Canadian Union of Public Employees but it's worth
nothing that the right-wing Saskatchewan Party has also taken a pass
on joining the pact despite the invitation from Alberta Premier Ed
Stelmach.
TILMA isn't on the table in Quebec City but that doesn't mean the
pressure for it (or something similar) has eased. The business
community is still urging a new mechanism to supersede the 14-year-old
Agreement on Internal Trade. AIT has reduced the barriers to labour
mobility but businesses say it is ineffective because it doesn't have
a binding dispute-resolution mechanism like TILMA. For example, a
national coalition of 10 industry and professional organizations wants
to allow individuals or businesses to challenge the decisions of
elected governments before tribunals whose authority is beyond a
government or the judicial system.
The business case is weakened, however, because it hasn't produced a
list of the barriers that need to be eliminated. Their claim, with no
supporting data, is that restrictions take $3-billion off the GNP.
(Mr. Stelmach says it's $14- billion.) To her credit, Ontario Economic
Development Minister Sandra Pupatello says there's a lot of "political
rhetoric" about trade barriers that doesn't withstand scrutiny.
The smart thing for the premiers to do is to take a pass on TILMA and
simply work a little harder on their bilateral irritations. They
should resist the pressure to hand over power to unelected tribunals.
© 2008 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frank Stanford's comment on CFAX
May 26, 2008
I AM IMPRESSED BY CUPE'S ARGUMENT AGAINST TILMA.
TILMA? YOU SAY. WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT?
PRECISELY THE POINT. MOST OF US DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT. IT'S AN
ACRONYM...THE "TRADE, INVESTMENT, AND LABOUR MOBILITY AGREEMENT"
BETWEEN BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALBERTA. WHY DO WE NEED IT? WHAT PROBLEMS
WILL IT SOLVE? CUPE'S B-C PRESIDENT WONDERED AT A NEWS CONFERENCE LAST
WEEK WHY YOU'RE NOT HEARING GOVERNMENT MINISTERS TOUTING THE BENEFITS
ALL OVER THE PLACE? IT'S PRESUMED A GOOD IDEA, BUT NOBODY SEEMS TO BE
ABLE TO SAY EXACTLY WHY. INSTEAD ADVOCATES ARE DEFENSIVE, TELLING US
THAT THE NAYSAYERS HAVE IT ALL WRONG.
THOSE NAYSAYERS NOW INCLUDE A LAW FIRM THAT'S PRODUCED AN OPINION FOR
THE UNION...SUIGGESTING THE AGREEMENT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
THE POLITICS OF TILMA ARE SIMILAR TO THOSE OF NAFTA AND CANADA-US FREE
TRADE BEFORE THAT. YOU MAY REMEMBER HOW THE PUBLIC DEBATE WENT... A
LOT OF RHETORIC, NOT A LOT OF INFORMATION. "OF COURSE IT'S A GOOD
IDEA". "NO IT DOESN'T MEAN THIS OR THAT AND IT CERTAINLY ISN'T A SELL-
OUT"...BUT WE CAN'T TELL YOU EXACTLY WHAT IT DOES MEAN.
AMONG ITS BENEFITS...FOREIGN CONTROL OF YOUR GASOLINE PRICES.
I AM NOT PERSUADED THAT RUSHING INTO ANY MORE TREATIES THAT TIE THE
HANDS OF PUBLIC POLICY MAKERS IN THE NAME OF CORPORATE PROFIT AND
TRADE IS A GOOD IDEA.
THIS IS FRANK STANFORD
There are a few things in this email:
1) follow up from CUPE's legal opinion release last week;
2) Action Alert to oppose the Western Premiers' Conference TOMORROW
and
3) Full text of the The Globe And Mail piece which appeared in
Saturday's edition (May 24, 2008), titled 'Ontario, Quebec: Just say
no to TILMA'.
Note that the StopTILMA toolkit has just been uploaded to the
StopTILMA site and can be accessed at:
http://tinyurl.com/5r9juu
(it is a 4mb file, so please be patient while this page loads)
Best,
Carleen
1) As noted last week, CUPE BC issued statement with the release of a
legal opinion by Steven Shrybman’s stating, “The Trade, Investment and
Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) between British Columbia and Alberta—
and the B.C. legislation enabling it—violate the Canadian constitution
by usurping the role of judges and endowing cabinet with too much
power, says a leading trade law expert in a legal opinion released
today. In the written opinion, Sack Goldblatt Mitchell lawyer Steven
Shrybman says that the TILMA and the BC Liberal government’s Bill 32
“confront basic constitutional norms, including the rule of law and
democracy”, by trumping the authority of both judges and
parliaments.”
I've included CFAX's comment on TILMA after the release of the legal
opinion, at the bottom of this email.
You can see the media conference in Victoria here:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6519828996242808803
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Tomorrow premiers from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and
Manitoba will meet in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to discuss many
aspects, importantly TILMA being one of them.
People of the Western provinces unite to take action – and quick! On
May 28, the premiers of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and
Manitoba will meet in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan for a discussion on
issues of concern to our communities. The conference, involving golf
games and dinner parties, is intended to allow the premiers to build
relationships and connections between the provinces. Despite the
relaxed atmosphere, the premiers will be tackling controversial issues
including the topics of Smart & Secure Borders, Energy Security,
Environmental Sustainability, Rural and Remote Communities and
Competitiveness. You can read more about this agenda at
http://www.scics.gc.ca/new_e.html
Participating in the discussion are representatives from PNWER - a
regional planning and facilitation organization that has been mulling
over TILMA - and David Wilkins the US Ambassador to Canada. Please
see an action alert issued today by Shelia Muxlow of the Council of
Canadians in the Prairies region. Please forward on to anyone you know
in the west.
Furthermore, Roger Gibbons, president and CEO of the right-wing Canada
West Foundation wrote an option editorial exposing the hopes of big
business for the promotion of the Trade, Investment and Labour
Mobility Agreement (TILMA), which you can read at
http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/forum/story.html?id=77e3bd8e-73db-4ee7-b84f-2684d31d2a96
.
We need action now to remind our premiers about their responsibilities
as representatives for the public interest! We need to react to the
push by the business community for the full implementation and
expansion of TILMA as it poses a great risk to our democratic,
economic, environmental and future securities. TILMA legislates the
right of corporations and powerful individuals to sue provincial
governments over protection measures for the public interest. Local
purchasing policies, agricultural zones, pesticide bans, and even
publicly owned industries can be threatened under TILMA with the
charge of being a ‘trade barrier’. To uphold their own safety and
build sustainable economies for future generations, communities must
be able to propose and enforce unique regulations and policies without
the threat of being sued by interests for private gain.
TAKE ACTION
Please take a moment to call or write your premier and feel free to
use the following talking points and/or letter.
By telephone:
Hello,
I would like to leave a comment for Premier ….. about the Trade,
Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement. I was informed that Roger
Gibbons, president and CEO from the Canada West Foundation, publicly
encouraged the premiers of Alberta and B.C. to promote the merits of
TILMA at the Western Premiers conference this week.
I would like to express my concern about TILMA as an unconstitutional
piece of legislation that undermines local decision making powers and
enables corporations to take money from public taxes. TILMA has never
been debated publicly although it is a far reaching piece of
legislation. TILMA is a modification to the Agreement on Internal
Trade that entrenches a dispute settlement mechanism similar to
chapter 11 in NAFTA, enabling corporations and powerful individual
seeking profit to sue governments over public protection measures that
impede on their money making opportunities.
It is wrong to privilege business so much in an economy when so many
things are interconnected. As we have seen through chapter 11 of the
NAFTA agreement, a dispute mechanism that enables challenges to be
brought against public protection measures limits the power of the
public to enforce unique policies that uphold the health of our
communities and the sustainability of our economies like agricultural
protection zones and local purchasing policies.
If there is going to be a new agreement on inter-provincial trade, it
needs to uphold the public interest of diversity, sustainability, and
health not one that upholds the big business interest of homogenized
markets, unsustainable growth and profitable toxic waste.
I want to see the TILMA off the table as a future possibility for
trade among the Western provinces. Thank you for your time.
By e-mail:
Dear (your premier)
I am writing you with concern about the topic of TILMA being discussed
at the Western Premiers’ Conference. It has been suggested that the
Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement signed between British
Columbia and Alberta is something that will be beneficial to the
provincial economy. I am writing to tell you I am certain it will not
be beneficial to those of us who do not own multi-million dollar
companies. TILMA is distinctly set up to privilege big business and
undermine local initiatives to promote sustainable small scale
business and economies. This is going to enable big business to buy
out smaller business and homogenize the markets within which they can
make a profit. Grass roots initiatives to ban pesticides, protect
green-space or promote a local purchasing policy can be challenged
under TILMA as ‘trade barriers’ that inhibit the making of a profit.
Additionally TILMA was not discussed publicly or debated by elected
officials. If we are to modify our existing Agreement on Internal
Trade than let it be done publicly with a full legislative debate and
public information campaign.
In a democracy we expect to be protected by our elected officials, not
manipulated to serve the interests of a few.
Sincerely,
<your name>
Contact Information:
Premier of Manitoba: Gary Doer
Phone: 1.204.945.3714
E-Mail: pre...@leg.gov.mb.ca
Premier of Saskatchewan: Brad Wall
Phone: 1.306.787.9433
E-Mail: pre...@gov.sk.ca
Premier of Alberta: Ed Stelmach
Phone: 1.780.427.2251
E-mail: pre...@gov.ab.ca
Premier of British Columbia: Gordon Campbell
Phone: 1.604.660.2421
E-mail: pre...@gov.bc.ca pre...@gov.bc.ca
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) Ontario, Quebec: Just say no to TILMA
The Globe And Mail
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Page: A13
Section: Column
Byline: Murray Campbell
Source: mcam...@globeandmail.com
It is cruel and unusual punishment that the two prominent issues in
Dalton McGuinty's second term of government are fiscal equalization
and interprovincial trade.
Arcane? That's not the half of it. Both subjects are mind-numbingly
esoteric and scream out "hold the back page." But, alas, both trade
and fiscal relations are fundamental to the future of Ontario and
Canada. The fiscal issue ebbs and flows according to whether federal
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty took his cranky pills that day, but the
interprovincial trade file just keeps plugging along.
Indeed, it's back on the agenda at next month's joint meeting of the
Quebec and Ontario cabinets and it's certain that the two governments
will announce measures to eradicate barriers to trade and growth. Mr.
McGuinty and Quebec Premier Jean Charest have been pursuing this goal
for four years and intensified their efforts last year by appointing
negotiators to strike a deal between the two provinces.
The agreements unveiled June 2 in Quebec City will likely deal with
certification and other credential issues and that's harmless enough.
But the pursuit of the "expanded accord" that the premiers want has
only begun and many in the hardy band of people who monitor trade
issues in Canada believe, like Elmer Fudd, that "there's something
scwewy going on around here."
Their fear is that Ontario and Quebec are pursuing something similar
to the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement that British
Columbia and Alberta struck in 2006 and which will take effect next
spring. Critics charge that this TILMA deal is a Trojan horse pushed
by businesses to restrict the regulatory powers of provincial and
municipal governments. They point to a "general rule" of the deal that
there should be "no obstacles" to freer trade and the right it gives
businesses to sue governments for up to $5-million "on any matter"
involving the interpretation or application of the deal.
The quasi-judicial tribunal to hear disputes is one reason why lawyer
Steven Shrybman concluded this week that TILMA and the B.C.
legislation enabling it violate the Canadian Constitution by usurping
the role of judges and endowing cabinet with too much power. He wrote
his brief for the Canadian Union of Public Employees but it's worth
nothing that the right-wing Saskatchewan Party has also taken a pass
on joining the pact despite the invitation from Alberta Premier Ed
Stelmach.
TILMA isn't on the table in Quebec City but that doesn't mean the
pressure for it (or something similar) has eased. The business
community is still urging a new mechanism to supersede the 14-year-old
Agreement on Internal Trade. AIT has reduced the barriers to labour
mobility but businesses say it is ineffective because it doesn't have
a binding dispute-resolution mechanism like TILMA. For example, a
national coalition of 10 industry and professional organizations wants
to allow individuals or businesses to challenge the decisions of
elected governments before tribunals whose authority is beyond a
government or the judicial system.
The business case is weakened, however, because it hasn't produced a
list of the barriers that need to be eliminated. Their claim, with no
supporting data, is that restrictions take $3-billion off the GNP.
(Mr. Stelmach says it's $14- billion.) To her credit, Ontario Economic
Development Minister Sandra Pupatello says there's a lot of "political
rhetoric" about trade barriers that doesn't withstand scrutiny.
The smart thing for the premiers to do is to take a pass on TILMA and
simply work a little harder on their bilateral irritations. They
should resist the pressure to hand over power to unelected tribunals.
© 2008 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frank Stanford's comment on CFAX
May 26, 2008
I AM IMPRESSED BY CUPE'S ARGUMENT AGAINST TILMA.
TILMA? YOU SAY. WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT?
PRECISELY THE POINT. MOST OF US DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT. IT'S AN
ACRONYM...THE "TRADE, INVESTMENT, AND LABOUR MOBILITY AGREEMENT"
BETWEEN BRITISH COLUMBIA AND ALBERTA. WHY DO WE NEED IT? WHAT PROBLEMS
WILL IT SOLVE? CUPE'S B-C PRESIDENT WONDERED AT A NEWS CONFERENCE LAST
WEEK WHY YOU'RE NOT HEARING GOVERNMENT MINISTERS TOUTING THE BENEFITS
ALL OVER THE PLACE? IT'S PRESUMED A GOOD IDEA, BUT NOBODY SEEMS TO BE
ABLE TO SAY EXACTLY WHY. INSTEAD ADVOCATES ARE DEFENSIVE, TELLING US
THAT THE NAYSAYERS HAVE IT ALL WRONG.
THOSE NAYSAYERS NOW INCLUDE A LAW FIRM THAT'S PRODUCED AN OPINION FOR
THE UNION...SUIGGESTING THE AGREEMENT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
THE POLITICS OF TILMA ARE SIMILAR TO THOSE OF NAFTA AND CANADA-US FREE
TRADE BEFORE THAT. YOU MAY REMEMBER HOW THE PUBLIC DEBATE WENT... A
LOT OF RHETORIC, NOT A LOT OF INFORMATION. "OF COURSE IT'S A GOOD
IDEA". "NO IT DOESN'T MEAN THIS OR THAT AND IT CERTAINLY ISN'T A SELL-
OUT"...BUT WE CAN'T TELL YOU EXACTLY WHAT IT DOES MEAN.
AMONG ITS BENEFITS...FOREIGN CONTROL OF YOUR GASOLINE PRICES.
I AM NOT PERSUADED THAT RUSHING INTO ANY MORE TREATIES THAT TIE THE
HANDS OF PUBLIC POLICY MAKERS IN THE NAME OF CORPORATE PROFIT AND
TRADE IS A GOOD IDEA.
THIS IS FRANK STANFORD
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