Thank you very much. It is a real pleasure to be here.
Good morning to everyone.
I am going to share my time with Councillor Sav Dhaliwal.
As you mentioned, I'm the mayor of Burnaby. I've been on city council for some 27 years. I have previously been a director of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and for about 20 years I have been a director of the Greater Vancouver Regional District. I have been mayor for the past 12 years.
Our city is the third-largest city in British Columbia, with a population of about 230,000 people.
Councillor Dhaliwal is presently a Federation of Canadian Municipalities director and is also vice-president of the Union of BC Municipalities.
This is a very interesting issue for our city, and as you can see we've taken a great deal of interest in how federal issues affect our municipalities, through our participation in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. So it is really nice to have an opportunity to be here today to talk about CETA and specifically about my concerns regarding its negative implications for municipalities and for the hard-working families in our communities. This proposed agreement would have a significant detrimental effect on the ability of municipalities to protect and promote local resources, employment, and an improved standard of living for middle-class families. It would further widen the growing gap in our country and our cities between rich and poor by reducing the number of working people who are able to maintain a reasonable and modest lifestyle.
This agreement has been prepared without a meaningful public consultation process for municipalities. A confidentiality agreement, signed by the provinces and territories as a condition of their participation in the CETA negotiations, has made effective public consultation for municipalities and the resident businesses and individuals impossible. Lack of consultation on the details of the agreement will inevitably lead to inclusion of rules that will detrimentally affect local procurement policies. For example, the agreement will prohibit municipalities from using procurement as a local economic social development tool by requiring municipalities to remove any preference for local companies, goods, or services.
Foreign companies will have the right to claim damages if CETA rules are not strictly met, and the decision as to whether or not the municipality has violated the rules will be made by a tribunal of business people, in secret, without our participation. This is truly a threat to democracy as we know it in Canada. To add insult to injury, even when we win the occasional hearing, in some cases repeatedly, the so-called partners ignore the rulings and continue to practise protectionist policies where it benefits them to do so, and we cower from enforcing our rights. Have we learned nothing from the softwood lumber dispute?
We all seem to be programmed to light up when we hear that anything is free, whether it is a free sample, free enterprise, or free trade. We do this despite the fact that we know nothing that businesses do is for free. There is always some benefit to be gained by their shareholders. This proposed agreement is certainly not free. Ask Canadians in the auto industry, the forest industry, and the manufacturing industry how free trade has worked out for them.
Though its details are vexing, our ability to be involved in a tweaking process won't change anything. The real damage is inherent in the deal itself because it is designed solely to meet the interests of big business and multinational corporations. The root of the problem is our federal government's willingness, and in fact its zeal, to engage in these negotiations in the first place, again, of course, without any real consultation with municipalities and without any real understanding by the citizens who will be affected.
I am convinced that the majority of the provisions in these agreements are not for the benefit of Canadian citizens. They are instead a charter of rights and freedoms for multinational corporations. The international trade agreements protect the interests of big business and ensure that multinational corporations can exploit the resources of our country without impediment. It is patently absurd that we are providing multinational corporations more protection from expropriation than we do for our own citizens. Unfortunately we end up with the very businesses that stand to benefit as part of our negotiating team while democratically elected representatives are kept in the dark.
Trade agreements are about exporting jobs to the jurisdictions with the least protection for workers and the lowest wages and environmental standards. That is what makes manufactured goods cheaper and allows corporations the greatest profit. There is a reason that generation after generation of politicians provided protection for their country's internal production and markets. Tariffs and duties were imposed to protect jobs, to stimulate industries, and to ensure the legitimate autonomy of nation states.
Globalization is all about breaking down national identity, driving living and working standards down, and empowering the very rich, those who control these multinational companies.
Wealth is being concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people, but the greatest fear is that individual citizens will assert their democratic rights and change the rules of the corporate game. They have figured out, along with their legions of accountants and lawyers, that the best way to protect their financial interests is to establish that there are international consequences should any local or provincial authority interfere with their assets or their opportunities. Many of these corporations are bigger than nations in terms of their economic power, and most of them have directors who are part of the societal elite. Among them, they continue to acquire and accumulate, while the middle class dissolves into nothingness and the gap between rich and poor widens exponentially.
On the World Bank's website there is a file that shows the world's top 100 economies based on GDP and revenues. Thirteen of them are companies with $406 billion GDP revenues. For example, Walmart has a bigger economy than Switzerland, Sweden, or Israel.
So what happens when citizens wake up and smell the coffee? If they do, they face international consequences for daring to assert their desire for local control of their own resources and jobs for their own people. In effect, they are powerless to act locally because their government has negotiated away their ability to stand up for their own community.
As local government, we have no control over what the national government does. We can only ask that you not trade away our limited ability to promote our local interests.
Thank you. I'll be available for questions.