Darcie Lanthier en français, but here on Prince Edward Island we say “Darcie Lanthier” and hope for the best.
I just wrote my talk while I was sitting there, so it's probably shorter than two minutes.
I am an energy systems engineering technologist—quite a mouthful. I work in the renewable energy sector, mostly with solar. It is the primary function of governments to protect citizens from corporations. The TPP is the tool to protect corporations from citizens. Trade deals are made nation to nation to remove little barriers, as in music and manufactured goods. Investor-state dispute mechanisms are not about trade. This one specifically is about corporate profits. As a renewable energy specialist, I attended the energy ministers' conference when it was last held in Charlottetown, and I listened to the VP of Suncor call the tar sands “an Asian investment opportunity” 14 times in 15 minutes.
The VP of Irving told the room to be unashamed, “After all, we are not big tobacco.” They are worse. The oil sector has been standing in the way of renewable energy for decades. They have been working against progress on climate change. They have killed more people than big tobacco, and they will eliminate the generations to come. They cannot be able to go to a little group of corporate lawyers and insist that their right to profit supersedes our right to a future.
Thank you.