GOOD NEWS: Nelson, BC says "No Thanks!!!" to CETA

[Oscar]

QUOTE: "“The truth is there’s no benefit to Canadian municipalities for being shackled by international trade restrictions on their local policy and spending powers. Cities are Harper's bargaining chips in these EU negotiations – they should have a right to say no to CETA.”" - Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians.

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Nelson asks to be excluded from CETA on eve of high level Canada-EU trade meeting

http://canadians.org/media/trade/2013/05-Feb-13.html

MEDIA RELEASE For Immediate Release February 5, 2013

On eve of high level Canada-EU trade meeting, Council of Canadians celebrates vote for transparency and democracy
Nelson, B.C. – The Council of Canadians and its Nelson chapter are celebrating a decision by City Council last night to demand a permanent exemption for the City from the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

Over 40 municipal councils, school boards or associations, including large cities like Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga and Victoria, have sought similar protections.

“We congratulate the City of Nelson for standing up for local jobs and local democracy. This resolution comes at an pivotal moment with European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht meeting with Trade Minister Ed Fast over the next two days to try and seal the deal,” says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “The truth is there’s no benefit to Canadian municipalities for being shackled by international trade restrictions on their local policy and spending powers. Cities are Harper's bargaining chips in these EU negotiations – they should have a right to say no to CETA.”

Last night, Nelson councillors voted to ask the federal government for exemption from CETA if it doesn’t conform to seven guidelines from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

As written, the CETA procurement rules would forbid a city, town, school board or other body included in the deal from preferring one bidding firm over another based on how much of the content in a certain project was local or Canadian. CETA would also ban municipalities from considering local development benefits when choosing between different bidding firms, whether they were Canadian or European. It’s up to the Province of British Columbia to decide whether Nelson and other cities will be bound by these rules.

“It doesn’t make sense for a province like B.C. to take away important job-creating tools from its cities,” says Barlow. “Public procurement is one of the last places where a local government can play a role in fostering sustainable, local development. To take that away will only benefit multinational corporations that can already outbid local firms and that will get new tools in CETA to challenge local decisions that don’t go their way.”

“Cities will also lose out if Harper agrees to pharmaceutical intellectual property rights changes that are guaranteed to increase the cost of public drug plans and the cost of drugs,” notes Stuart Trew, Trade Campaigner with the Council of Canadians.

Canada and the EU have held over 10 rounds of comprehensive trade and investment negotiations since October 2010 with smaller talks scheduled in the coming months. The Council of Canadians is one of over 60 organizations in Canada and Quebec calling on the provinces and territories to provide an outlet for public dialogue on the actual content of the CETA negotiations prior to a final deal being signed at some point in 2013. -30-

For more information:

Dylan Penner, Media Officer, Council of Canadians, 613-795-8685, dpenner@canadians.org
Twitter: @CouncilOfCDNs |
www.canadians.org/CETA

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UPDATE: Lessons from how the CETA debate unfolded in Nelson, BC

http://canadians.org/blog/?p=19199

By Brent Patterson, Friday, February 8th, 2013

A Nelson, British Columbia city motion asking for an exemption from the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement if certain conditions are not met offers a lesson on how to approach other city councils about the deal at this late stage.

The motion passed by Nelson City Council reads - “Given the concerns raised about lack of openness and transparency in the negotiation process, Council asks for an exemption for the City of Nelson from the Canada-European Union (EU) Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), as resolved by UBCM Resolutions B108 in 2010 and B87 and B88 in 2012, should the FCM’s Seven Trading Principles not be respected.”

The Nelson Daily reports on how a Council of Canadians-inspired motion to exempt Nelson was altered to a hybrid of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) resolutions when debated by City Council on February 4. The significant difference to keep in mind is, “The UBCM has asked the federal government to exempt B.C. municipalities from the agreement, and the FCM wants some limitations, not exemption.”

The newspaper notes, “Councillor Candace Batycki’s motion to ask the federal government to exempt Nelson from an international trade agreement was the result of a presentation to Council by the local chapter of the Council of Canadians in January. The discussion began with Councillor Deb Kozak noting that Council had received letters from Pacific Insight Electronics and from the Nelson and District Chamber of Commerce in support of the CETA, which they said would open up European markets to Nelson companies. The Chamber of Commerce’s letter challenges the points made by the Council of Canadians to Nelson Council in January. Mayor John Dooley, who sits on the FCM committee dealing with this issue at the national level, told Council he had many problems with Batycki’s resolution and he gave a lengthy, impassioned speech. (After the Mayor argued that the City of Nelseon doesn’t buy locally), Council members had little to say about Dooley’s comments and there was no further discussion about the actual content of the CETA including whether or not it would indeed have the adverse effects that Councillor Batycki alleged. Instead, Baticki offered to soften her motion, to ask for an exemption only if a set of negotiation guidelines already developed by the FCM are not followed.”

To pursue a CETA resolution in your community, please use our tool kit at http://canadians.org/action/2012/CETA-resolution.html. When appropriate, you could consider using the Nelson City Council motion as a ‘be it resolved’ in the sample resolution provided in the tool kit.

The Nelson Daily report can be read at http://thenelsondaily.com/news/dooley-wins-ceta-scuffle-council-23131.

Our ‘WIN! Nelson city council passes CETA resolution’ can be read at
http://canadians.org/blog/?p=19156.