Shorter Green-supporter Christy Clark

Shorter Christie snorter : 'Hey leftie enviros! If you're not gonna vote for 2nd-place me directly, please at least split the vote by voting for the 3rd place Green instead, promoted right here at the top of my full page ad in the Times Colonist and paid for by "Today's BC Liberal Party".'




Gotta love that "Today's BC Liberals". 
Nothing at all to do with Gordon Campbell's "Yesterday's Liberals" presumably, from whom Christie inherited her unelected premiership. 

Hat tip to RossK for Ian Bailey's pic of the Liberals' Times Colonist ad, to CBC for the May 9th Ipsos Reid poll, and most especially to :

• those $500-a-ticket fundraisers held for Christy at the Calgary Petroleum Club "targeting deep-pocketed oil patch players", 
• Gwyn Morgan of Encana for smoothing over the transition from the unre-electable Gordo to the unelected Christy, and 
• Encana itself for donating over half a million dollars to Christy's Liberals in the last three years while simultaneously lobbying the BC government about LNG terminals and fracking.

Update : And right here I was going to post Kevin Logan's video about how a combination of 

1) the June 2010 "Equivalency Agreement" between Harper and the BC Liberals and 

2) the TILMA/New West Partnership Agreement between BC and Alberta 

effectively prevents BC from prohibiting pipelines from being built across BC to the coast. 

But Norm at Northern Insight has posted it along with a nice short precis of the New West Partnership Agreement so go watch it there.
Video creator Kevin Logan's links to back up his research at his own site here.

A little background on the two gents portrayed in Christy's infomercial embedded in Logan's vid from The Tyee.

Economist Robyn Allan says BC could legally cancel the Equivalency Agreement with 30 days written notice on pipeline projects not yet approved, but first of course the Libs would have to acknowledge the effing agreement exists, which would naturally lead to questions about their non-disclosure agreements with their oilbidness buddies even as they simultaneously try to portray themselves as somehow representing the people of BC .

No mention at all of the Liberals locking BC into pipeline agreements before they are even inked in the BC media election coverage leading up to the May 14 BC election unless you count this Vancouver Sun report a whole freaking year ago.  You're shocked, I'm sure.

Monday update : Changed my mind - here's Logan's vid for all you non-clicking-through guys :

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Wednesday update : Voter turnout - 48% 

Elections BC 
Seat count : Libs - 50, NDP - 33, Green - 1, Independent - 1
% of popular vote : Libs - 44.4%, NDP - 39.5%, Green - 8%, Con - 4.8%, 
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The NAFTA to TILMA to CETA race to the bottom

BC jobs go to Alberta; the profits go to Texas ...

The public utility BC Hydro is spending $1-billion to upgrade its transmission lines.

The Northwest Transmission Line contract - $364-525 million with 280 direct jobs per year - went to Valard Construction, based in Alberta and owned by Quanta Services from Texas. A BC company qualified as a bidder but were later told by Quanta to withdraw from the competition.
 
The Lower Mainland Transmission line - $540-780 million with 543 person years of work - is going to Graham-Flatiron, who subcontracted the line work to another Alberta company, also owned by Quanta.

The Columbia Valley Transmission project - $132-209 million - went to RS Line Contr.Co., another Alberta company.

As Doug McKay of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers told The Tyee, these companies come in with their own workers :

"They're scared to hire the people out here because we're quite unionized."

The B.C. jobs typically go to the lowest bidders, he said. "Here we look at low price and close our eyes and hope nobody gets killed," he said. "It's a race to the bottom as far as we're concerned."

According to BC Hydro :

"BC Hydro is subject to both the Agreement on Internal Trade and TILMA. BC Hydro’s policies require public competitive bids to be fair, transparent and open to all bidders who meet the requirements for each procurement. We do not track whether contractors are union or non-union."

So while the people of BC might expect to benefit from local jobs and revenue from their publicly owned electricity utility, TILMA and NAFTA sends those jobs and personal taxes to Alberta while the profits go on to Texas and BC Hydro doesn't care whether those jobs are union or not.


Meanwhile CETA, Steve's Canada-EU free trade agreement, promises more of the same "freedom" for foreign investors.
Here's the text of the negotiating mandates approved by the EU General Affairs Council for investment protection chapters in free trade agreements of the EU with Canada, India and Singapore. Note the last line.

Annex 1 TITLE 3 A : Investment protection

Objective: In accordance with the principles and the objectives of the Union's external action the respective provisions of the agreement shall provide for :

the highest possible level of legal protection and certainty for European investors in Canada/India/Singapore,

Scope: the investment protection title of the agreement shall cover a broad range of investors and their investments, intellectual property rights included, whether the investment is made before or after the entry into force of the agreement.

Enforcement: the agreement shall aim to provide for an effective investor-to state- dispute settlement mechanism. State-to-state dispute settlement will be included, but will not interfere with the right of investors to have recourse to the investor-to-state dispute settlement mechanism. It should provide for investors a wide range of arbitration fora as currently available under the Member States' bilateral investment agreements (BIT's).

Relationship with other parts of the agreement: the chapter on investment protection shall be a separate one, not linked to the market access commitments. These markets access commitments may include, when necessary, rules concerning performance requirements.

All the sub-federal or local entities and authorities (such as provinces or municipalities) must effectively comply with the investment protection chapter of this agreement

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The NAFTA CETA TILMA SPP Beyond the Borders Security Perimeter deep integration corporate globalization bunfest

 Under NAFTA, provinces retained the right to administer their own government procurement contracts as they saw fit - water, power, highways, garbage, and local cultural/environmental/job stimulus programs.
In fact most of the regulations in Canada are provincial and municipal - which rather got in the way of the federal government's ability to cede whatever the US wanted under the massive deregulation program called the SPP, because the federal government's power to do so was always constrained by the provinces' authority over those regs.

 TILMA was supposed to get around this.
TILMA is an investors' rights agreement to gut the ability of locally elected governments to enact public policy for the environment, consumer protection, health care, education, and other social services - albeit with some limitations. TILMA's job is to allow corporations to directly sue a provincial or municipal government whose laws or policies might impinge upon their profits in the event a province was seen to favour, say, Local Joe's over some competing out-of-province outfit. This was promoted under the guise of harmonizing regulations between provinces - it's always about 'harmonizing', isn't it? - but as only Alberta and BC signed on, it was not implemented across Canada.

TILMA was intended to replace the less onerous Agreement on Internal Trade, which did not allow corps to sue governments directly but only to petition another level of government to sponsor a complaint on their behalf.

Erin Weir, CPPA blog, emphasis mine:

"A month ago, Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments volunteered to be directly sued by investors under the Agreement on Internal Trade."

What, all of them?!

It is, as Weir notes, "TILMA by the backdoor", with "persons (individuals, businesses and other organizations)" able to sue for "financial penalties of up to $5 million" over public policy.

A mini NAFTA Chapter 11 for provinces. If passed next year, it will produce a considerable pre-emptive chill on any province or municipality favouring Local Joe's over ... well, anybody else looking to prevent them from doing just that.  
Weir :

"The Canadian government is simultaneously trying to negotiate similar provisions with much larger fines for investor-state disputes involving the European Union. Since the proposed Canada-Europe deal would include provincial governments, creating an investor-state dispute process encompassing provinces may help pave the way."

Yes, because the main sticking point preventing a Canada-EU free trade agreement in the past, as far as the Europeans were concerned, has been the Canadian provinces' stubborn reluctance to open up these local government procurement contracts to European corporations.

Embassy Mag on CETA :

"At the end of 2010, Canada asked for the inclusion of an investor-to-state mechanism in the deal, similar to Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement. This is a controversial provision that allows corporations to seek compensation from states if government policies hurt their business interests."

Back to Weir on the AIT :

"The press release even notes “the importance of linkages between the Agreement on Internal Trade and international trade agreements."

As TILMA was to the SPP, so the Agreement on Internal Trade will be to the Canada-EU CETA free trade agreement, if they both pass.

From the Declaration in Support of a Canada-EU Trade and Investment Agreement, signed by the 101 corporations whose participation and recommendations are apparently vastly more important than yours :

"A Canada-EU agreement will provide European companies with a gateway into the vast North American free trade area."

Currently the US-Canada Security Perimeter Beyond the Border Working Groups are also beavering away harmonizing US and Canadian regulations - also entirely out of public sight.

And voilà - the EU-NAFTA free trade zone.
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Canada-EU Trade Agreement update

Why does it fall to a former Irish MP and Member of the European Parliament to raise questions about the detrimental effect to Canadians of the proposed Canada-EU trade agreement? Isn't that the job of the Canadian government and the Canadian media? *rhetorical lol*

Under the guise of harmonizing regulations between provinces, TILMA enjoyed limited success in the west in jettisoning the provinces' and municipalities' right to "Buy Local" in favour of investor rights for international corps. That was a big sticking point for the EU going ahead with a Canada-EU trade deal - if European companies weren't allowed to bid as equals on Canadian government contracts for both goods and services and if the provinces refused to end the favouring of local or national providers of public-sector services, well then the EU wasn't very interested in pursuing a deal.

Luckily - for Harper and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the 100 transatlantic CEOs - the big "Buy American" scare showed up. In exchange for a one day opportunity window into the 4 or 5 billion dollars left in Obama's Buy American stimulous package - jobs! jobs! jobs! - Harper convinced the provinces to give up their local procurement rights.

Between the two deals - the throw-away Buy American 'exemption' and the proposed Canada-EU deal - we're caught in a pincer move to further corporatize public services.

Good thing there's one lone Irishman at the European parliament asking a few questions on our behalf then, eh?

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From SPP to TILMA to "Buy North American"

Harper and Stockwell Day want the provinces to allow US corporations to be allowed to bid on contracts to supply local infrastructure to Canadian municipalities, schools and hospitals. It is their hope, they say, that this "gesture" will convince the US to repeal the "Buy American" provisions in U.S. stimulus legislation.

Not likely it will, of course, but it does provide Harper with yet another opportunity to make concessions to the US that they haven't even asked for.
Currently, because provinces and municipalities are not bound by international trade laws, if they want to give the work to local Canadian joes, they are free to do so. According to Steve and Doris, this is a bad thing. An example given in the G&M is : "Ontario buys only Ontario food for its prisons."

News media reports on this are all assbackwards so I've translated part of one from the G&M for you :

The Canadian government Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives are asking the provinces to join it in creating a new trade deal with the United States conceding even more sovereignty to the US.

Because the 1993 North American free-trade agreement does not include spending by local jurisdictions, contracts across North America involving everything from sewage systems to subway repairs are being awarded outside the framework of continental free trade to local joes.

Mr. Harper said, "Obviously, at a time when we're trying to keep borders open internationally consolidate the power of corporate oligarchy via deep integration, I do think that the proliferation of domestic preferences in subnational government procurement Canadian nationalism and the "Buy Local" movement is really problematic."

Trade Minister Stockwell Day has been canvassing the provinces on the idea of opening up local spending to free trade giving up their local authority, citing the consensus on EU free-trade talks.
The Europeans would not launch the talks until Canadian provinces committed to negotiating a deal that would allow their companies to bid for provincial and municipal contracts on an equal footing. Only Newfoundland refused stood up for Canada.

Day acknowledged the pending EU free trade talks would likely compel the provinces to commit to opening up their procurement sectors further corporate globalization.
"That's really opened the door to the discussion now that we're having with the provinces "Ha, ha, bet you didn't see that one coming," Mr. Day said yesterday.

See Monday's post for how easily we progressed from the SPP and TILMA to the new "Buy North American" proposal.
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Friday Update : The G&M is cranking out two or three headlines of support a day now.
Here's one : "Premiers rally behind Harper in fight against Buy American"
Yeah, two premiers "offered encouragement". Big whoop.
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From the SPP to TILMA to the bid to kill 'Buy US'

The above clip from Paul Manly's excellent new documentary, "You, Me and the SPP : Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule", uses interviews with Maude Barlow, Peter Julian, Erin Weir, Michael Byers, Gordon Laxer, Dave Cole and others to explain how the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement - TILMA - signed by Premiers Gordon Campbell and Ralph Klein, is really just a confidence trick - an investors' rights agreement that guts the ability of locally elected governments to enact public policy for the environment, consumer protection, health care, education, and other social services.

In it Murray Dobbin explains :

"The way to look at TILMA is as part and parcel of the Security and Prosperity Partnership. One major aspect of the SPP is massive deregulation and the way they put it of course is "harmonizing regulations" between the three SPP countries of Mexico, Canada, and the US. But one of the problems for Canada is that most of the regulations in this country are actually provincial and municipal, so the federal government can't actually deliver. When it sits down at the negotiating table with the US and they say "we want harmonization", Canada says well actually we're having a problem with that because we don't control most of the regulations."

When NAFTA was negotiated, the Canadian provinces refused to open their procurement markets to U. S. bidders.

NaPo :

"Canada's federal procurement market, excluding defence, is valued at up to $5-billion a year, and is covered under international free trade rules that prohibit discrimination against foreign firms. In contrast, the provincial sector, which includes municipalities, universities and hospitals, is far more lucrative at roughly $22-billion annually, and is not covered under World Trade Organization measures."

Murray, again : "So TILMA fills in that gap. TILMA is an essential component of the SPP. You can't complete the SPP without TILMA being signed on by every province."

Until now. Enter the economic crisis :

NAPO : BID TO KILL 'BUY U.S.' HINGES ON PROVINCES :

Ottawa urges officials to open markets to U. S :

"The federal government is looking to cut a deal with Washington that would persuade U. S. legislators to repeal controversial Buy American measures that Canadian firms say are costing them sales ...
The key element of such a pact, however, is getting the provinces and territories to open up their procurement markets to U. S. suppliers. At present, provinces and municipalities are not bound by global trade law and are free to discriminate against U. S. companies in favour of local suppliers.

International Trade Minister Stockwell Day has been in talks with the provinces to determine their willingness.

Trade lawyer Lawrence Herman : "If we are going to do anything to try to resolve the Buy American issue, it is going to take the provinces to sign on to a deal to open up their markets."

Melisa Leclerc, a spokeswoman for Mr. Day, said in an e-mail the Minister would "solicit feedback" on procurement from provincial trade officials when they gather to meet in Yellowknife on Monday."

Well we know Gordo will be onboard, happy for any 'crisis' to deliver the deregulation a country-wide push for TILMA is just taking far too long to achieve. Who else? We should be getting our first bout of pro-deep integration spin on this from the pro-Corp media by later today.

Update : And here it comes, right on cue :

NaPo Editorial Board : "Stockwell Day, the International Trade Minister, is attempting to convince the provinces to lower procurement barriers to enable U.S. suppliers to bid on equal standing with Canadian competitors. Ottawa hopes that eliminating some of Canada’s own barriers will act as a show of good faith to the Americans, encouraging them to follow suit.

CP : " The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, say the solution is an open market in government procurement, particularly at the municipal and provincial-state levels currently not covered by the North American Free Trade Agreement".

Yes, let's roll over and see if that makes 'em treat us better.

Wednesday Update : Harper and Stockwell Day each try to promote this idea without sounding like utter quislings.

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Paul Manly : "You, Me and the SPP"

Paul Manly is probably best known to most of us as the guy who shot the video of CEP union President Dave Coles exposing the 3 rock-toting Quebec police provocateurs at the Montebello protest against the SPP back in Aug. 2007.

His latest film is You, Me and the SPP : Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule.

Cribbing from his own description here :

"a feature length documentary which exposes the corporatist agenda that is currently undermining the democratic authority of the citizens of North America.
Two processes, the Security Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and the Trade Investment Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) are rapidly eroding and eliminating standards, civil liberties, regulatory systems and institutions put in place over generations through the democratic process."

A kick ass preview : The Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the SPP, ten minutes of interviews with Maude Barlow, Dave Coles, Michael Byers, Erin Weir, Gordon Laxer, Connie Fogel, Peter Julian, Ken Georgetti, and more. Clear, concise - an excellent overview.

You, Me and the SPP will be shown at Langara in Vancouver on February 14th and in other cities across Canada as part of the traveling World Community Film Festival [itinerary here].

Or you could buy the CD, or encourage your local library to do so, at his website, Manly Media.

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PNWER and Cascadia

"I think there is a very strong, natural pull of the region called Cascadia," Premier Gordon Campbell says in an article on the Discovery Institute website last year.

The Seattle-based Discovery Institute, rather better known for its crusade to teach intelligent design/creationism in schools, is a Cascadia partner with PNWER, a US-Canada public-private sector regional lobby group composed of legislators and business leaders from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, B.C., Alberta, and the Yukon Territory. They are sponsored in this endeavor by Exxon, Enbridge, Encana, British Petroleum, Terasen, Cominco, - well, you get the general idea.

Gordon Campbell is hosting this year's PNWER event starting Sunday July 20 at the Bayshore. Speakers include Stockwell Day, Gary Lunn, Monte Solberg, US Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins, Canadian Ambassador to the US Michael Wilson, and industry stakeholders.

So let's hear it from the fans :

Premier Gordon Campbell : "Working together means we're working on both sides of the border to achieve our goals."

Stockwell Day : "PNWER has had a profound impact on policymaking."

PNWER executive director American Matt Morrison on TILMA : “We did have something to do with the B.C.-Alberta agreement, which I think is a great model that needs to be expanded."

Gosh, I guess that means PNWER is to TILMA what CCCE was to the SPP.

To follow the money : a great post at Owls and Roosters.

SPP, TILMA, and the tar sands

Macdonald Stainsby, writing at The Dominion :

"TILMA is a new set of limitations on government's ability to regulate, and the SPP is the removal of a pre-existing set of regulations. Both TILMA and the SPP have specific aims that go beyond the usual attempt to enshrine investors' rights and protect corporations from government regulations.

Both agreements pave the way--in many cases literally--for the largest industrial project in history to move forward: a project that calls for the extraction of over 170 billion barrels of recoverable oil from the tar sands of Alberta's Athabasca, Peace and Cold Lake regions.

The SPP and TILMA have anticipated popular resistance and preemptively removed the ability of governments to control the massive supply of energy, land, water and labour needed in the tar sands. They similarly preempt governments' ability to regulate the destruction and pollution that the "gigaproject" will create.

In response to Chinese interest in the tar sands, US energy expert Irving Mintzer blurted out, "The problem with the Chinese is that they don't know that the Canadian oil is ours. And neither do the Canadians."

Continued...