....feeling stretched?
August 10, 2007
Dear friends;
In the midst of all, please consider the following. An ongoing project, the so-called 'Security and Prosperity Partnership' SPP, has been increasingly making our lives, and that of all creatures on this continent, much more difficult. We need to expose and reverse this very bad deal. We have had much good success in recent years, stopping many deals which would have been extremely bad for the environment and for people, such as the FTAA and the GATS.
As we have had success, the few people who control capital markets are forced to resort to back-door routes to achieve their goals. They are now targetting regional deals and local municipal governments using piece-by-piece regulatory changes through a process called 'harmonization'. This harmonization has been happening in a piecemeal fashion already, and is a core reason we feel ourselves stretched financially and emotionally, as Canada and its resources are brought gradually under the control of the US and its financiers. This project is advancing now under the so-called "Security and Prosperity Partnership", the SPP.
People across the continent are working to stop the SPP, yet many Canadians have not even heard of it.
Below please find an exerpt from a good backgrounder on the SPP outlining how it means more war, less water, cut energy, reduced health and safety, slashed jobs, poor working conditions, all for the power and profit of a very few. http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/ ... 0Doors.pdf .
The SPP is being negotiated without public nor Parliamentary input, and will be the subject of meetings between Harper, Bush, and Mexico's Calderon on Aug. 20, 21 in Montebello, Que. These three are using the US Army to form a 25 km. barrier around the meetings in Quebec to keep the public out, including military checkpoints.
Please consider participating in cross-Canada Days of Action now until Aug. 21 to demand that all SPP documents be revealed to the public, and that negotiations stop until the public and Parliament can debate the contents.
Please see www.integratethis.ca for more information. Many groups including the Canadian Peace Alliance, the Council of Canadians, Common Frontiers, the Canadian Labour Congress, and numerous environmental, faith, senior's, labour, women's and student groups are involved. Some groups have organized a public forum in Ottawa, the second item posted below. Residents of Northumberland are going to events in Ottawa and Montebello on Aug. 19 and 20th, via bus and carpool. Those who cannot attend at the meetings themselves can provide an invaluable service by helping to expose the SPP, sharing this email with friends and concerned citizens.
Thank you, and wishing you all the best,
Leigh and Darrick Thomson
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The SPP and water
Bulk exports and the "joint optimum utilization of the available water"
It’s no secret that the U.S. is going to need water… It’s no secret that Canada is going to have an overabundance of water. At the end of the day, there may have to be arrangements.
~ North American Future 2025 Project Leader Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, April 2007
There is very little mention of water in publicly available Security and Prosperity Partnership documents beyond plans to "combat invasive alien species" in the Great Lakes, and to create an online portal for sharing information on water management in each country. But we know from several leaked documents from U.S. groups like the Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for Strategic and International Studies that bulk water exports and other contentious issues related to water management have been discussed in trilateral talks linked to the SPP.
Water: A "long term goal" of deep integration
In May 2005, the Council on Foreign Relations, Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) and Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales released a final version of Building a North American Community — a report of the Task Force on the Future of North America. While commending North America’s three leaders for initiating the SPP two months earlier, the task force, which was co-chaired by John Manley and vicechaired by Thomas d’Aquino of the CCCE, promoted a much broader vision for North America that included a common security perimeter and a common economic zone by 2010.
Missing from the final report of May 2005, but clearly still "on the table," was the issue of bulk water exports to the United States.
"No item – not Canadian water, not Mexican oil, not American anti-dumping laws – is ‘off the table’; rather, contentious or intractable issues will simply require more time to ripen politically," claimed a leaked summary of a 2005 task force meeting in Toronto. Task force members also considered, "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."
Building a North American Community is not simply the product of an ambitious think tank. The Council on Foreign Relations carries enormous infl uence in Washington. Similarly, the CCCE has been the driving force behind the SPP in Canada. Thomas d’Aquino regularly attends Security and Prosperity Partnership meetings and has direct input into the integration process through his access to the North American Competitiveness Council, which is housed within the CCCE. If he is discussing bulk water exports with his American counterparts then clearly the issue is very much "on the table."
A future for bulk water exports?
As if one, huge trilateral task force on North American integration wasn’t enough, in March 2006 the governments of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico launched the North American Future 2025 Project, "to help guide the ongoing Security and Prosperity Partnership," according to an April 13, 2007 article in the Ottawa Citizen.
The project is an initiative of the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in collaboration with the Conference Board of Canada and Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE).
According to leaked documents acquired by the Council of Canadians, CSIS has been holding a series of closed-door meetings with business leaders, government officials and selected academics in order to "strengthen the capacity of Canadian, U.S., and Mexican administration officials and that of their respective legislatures to analyze, comprehend, and anticipate North American integration." A roundtable on the "Future of the North American Environment," which took place April 27, 2007 in Calgary, discussed "water consumption, water transfers and artificial diversions of bulk water," with the aim of achieving "joint optimum utilization of the available [North American] water."
The North American Future 2025 Project is proof that the idea of bulk water exports is being discussed in the context of continental integration. It assumes that water will be pumped south from Canada into the United States, and that the SPP is the proper venue for making such decisions. A final report from the CSIS project will be tabled to SPP leaders at the next summit in Montebello, Quebec.
Multi-modal corridors and water pipelines
The Trans Texas Corridor has been called "the largest engineering project ever proposed" for George Bush’s home state. At its widest, the "multi-modal" transit corridor will be four football fields wide and include lanes for cars, trains and trucks headed from the Mexican coast through Texas and into America’s heartland. But the track doesn’t end there. Through public-private consortia like the North American Super Corridor Coalition, which counts the province of Manitoba as a proud participant, plans are underway to extend this Texas pet-project right up past the Canadian border to an expanded port in Churchill.
This proposed mega-highway has been dubbed the "NAFTA Superhighway" because it is designed to speed up the flow of goods between the three signatory countries. But "multimodal" doesn’t just mean train, truck and car lanes. It also means pipelines.
"Texas proposes to build a new type of transportation system, a network of wide corridors designed to move people and goods faster and more safely than ever before," says a Trans Texas Corridor Document from 2002. "Beyond that, the corridor will feature a wide utility zone for the transmission of oil, natural gas, electricity, data and a substance critical to the future of the state – water."
Opponents of the corridor plan in Texas worry the pipelines will be used to carry Texan water south to Mexico in return for oil. But considering the looming crisis in Texas, and the fact that bulk water exports are now being discussed as part of the North American Future 2025 Project for continental integration, it is possible that the pipelines will be used to carry Canadian water. "A lot of people don’t need it, but when you head south and west, we need it," said George W. Bush, six months into his term, at a joint press conference with former prime minister Jean Chrétien. "Some have suggested abandoned pipelines that used to carry energy. That’s a possibility. I would be open to any discussion."
http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/ ... 0Doors.pdf pp.13,14
***
PUBLIC FORUM
On the Security and Prosperity Partnership Leaders Summit in Montebello
Sunday August 19, 4:00 p.m.
Marion Hall, 140 Louis Pasteur, University of Ottawa
Free admission
Speakers:
Maude Barlow, National Chairperson, The Council of Canadians
Gustavo Iruegas, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Legitimate Government of Mexico
Michèle Asselin, Fédération des femmes du Québec / RQIC
Michael Byers, author, Intent for a Nation: What is Canada for?
Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army colonel, anti-war activist
(TBA, a speaker on tri-national energy issues)
Political panel:
Bonnie Brown, MP, Liberal Party health critic
Serge Cardin, MP, Bloc Québécois trade critic
Peter Julian, MP, New Democratic Party trade critic
Elizabeth May, Green Party leader
(Conservative MPs have been invited, but to date have declined)
Come and find out what they are not telling you.
Organized by:
The Council of Canadians, The Canadian Labour Congress, The Canadian Union of Public Employees, The Communications, Energy & Paperworkers Union of Canada, The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, The Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Common Frontiers-Canada, The Quebec Network on Continental Integration, Canadian Auto Workers Union, Public Service Alliance of Canada, National Union of Public and General Employees
http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/ ... _Aug07.pdf.