Thank you.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you about the TPP. I'm Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour, and we represent over 100,000 unionized workers throughout different sectors here in Manitoba.
We have a number of concerns with the TPP deal that the Harper government negotiated on Canada's behalf.
Corporations get more power to sue countries. Investor-state dispute settlement is a provision in many trade agreements that allows massive corporations to directly sue democratically elected governments in an unaccountable system separate from national courts in order to expand their profits. For example, Canada is currently being sued by a drug company, Eli Lilly, for $500 million after our courts refused to extend patents on several of its drugs.
Another concern we have is labour mobility. Chapter 12 of the TPP lays out the labour mobility provisions in a way that undermines the interests of Canadian workers. This provision takes the worst aspects of the temporary foreign worker program and strengthens them. The agreement prohibits Canada from imposing any limit on the number of foreign workers entitled to enter the country as long as they fall under one of the broadly defined categories of workers that Canada has agreed to admit. Canada is further prohibited from administering a labour certification test before the worker can be given a work permit.
This agreement allows both domestic and foreign companies to bring foreign workers to Canada to take jobs that Canadians are ready, willing, and able to fill. These workers will not be immigrants. They will have no path to citizenship. They won't fall under the existing temporary foreign worker program. Under the existing temporary foreign worker program, employers have to pay those workers the same wages as Canadians' wages and train and certify up to Canadian standards. The TPP will not give even these modest protections to exploitable foreign workers.
We're concerned as well about Canadian job loss.
The TPP puts at risk a number of existing jobs in Canada. A study by Unifor found that the TPP could lead to the loss of 20,000 jobs in the Canadian auto sector by eliminating incentives to manufacture vehicles in Canada and increasing incentives for companies to source auto parts from low-wage countries.
The TPP will give foreign dairy producers an even bigger share of our dairy market, such that 250 million litres of milk and the production jobs that come with that are at risk. While dairy farmer owners—but not workers—have been promised a 15-year compensation package, it's clear that the TPP will hasten the decline of Canada's dairy industry.
We're concerned also with higher prescription drug costs. Canada already has the second-highest per capita drug costs in the world. The TPP gives even more monopoly patent protection to drug companies than they currently have, meaning that it will take longer for Canadians to access cheaper generic versions of the drugs. The TPP's concessions to drug companies could see Canadians paying over $800 million annually in increased drug costs.
The TPP locks Canada into its current level of privatization and commercialization, effectively preventing any future innovation that involves expansion of comprehensive public services, such as a universal national pharmacare program. The extension of drug patents also restricts the availability of generic drugs in developing countries.
As well, on the environment, the TPP will make it harder for governments to set strong environmental targets such as better air and water quality. According to the Canadian Labour Congress, close to 40% of legal challenges under NAFTA have involved corporations challenging government environmental policies, such as banning gasoline additives and PCBs or enforcing water protections. By virtue of the TPP preventing governments from attaching conditions to procurement contracts to foster local economic development and ensure environmental standards, governments will also be restricted from taking needed action on climate change and transitioning to a lower-carbon economy. For example, governments will have less flexibility to encourage the development of local green energy sectors to replace fossil fuel imports.
Finally, the TPP grows inequality. Trade agreement advocates continue to assure us that workers' rights and living standards will be strengthened by trade deals, but the global economy, business growth, and profits cannot be the only considerations when countries enter trade deals. Across the globe, as large corporate profits soar, they do so at the expense of citizens, workers, and consumers. Work has become more precarious, income inequalities have grown, climate change continues to get worse, and labour rights have been eroded.
Say no to the TPP. The merits of Canada joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership have not been demonstrated. The previous government undertook no economic or environmental impact analysis, and no convincing case has been made for participation in the TPP.
The labour movement is not opposed to trade. We understand that we need to compete with other markets and attract investment in Canadian businesses. The question is, at what cost?
How much more should Canada sacrifice as we enter these deals, and what are we truly to gain?
Our new government was elected to do a better job than Harper's secretive government.