Topic
Citizens' views on CETA -- affecting energy, environment, education, transport, health --won't be solicited.
BC Premier Christy Clark: 'Discussions are... getting closer to the end. We don't intend to do any further consultation.'
What the BC government can't tell you about the sweeping new treaty being framed with Europe.
Premier's promise to consult British Columbians wiped away as Harper's team 'sells' CETA agreement.
NDP leader says province's negotiators are 'most willing to sell out municipalities.'
BC's municipal leaders want to know if their hands will be tied.
Eight months ago a British Columbia cabinet minister said it was too soon to consult the public on what might be in a trade agreement with the European Union. Now the premier says it's too late.
"No, we don't intend to do that," Christy Clark told NDP Leader Adrian Dix, when he asked during debate on her office's budget last week about consultations on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.
The negotiations are between Canada and the EU, but provinces have been at the table as a deal would affect areas like energy, the environment, education, transportation and health that are largely matters of provincial jurisdiction.
"The discussions are, I'm advised, getting closer to the end," said Clark. "We don't intend to do any further consultation on it."
That's a very different answer than she gave a year ago in the same forum, when she said, "There will be, I'm told, consultation on this agreement. There will be many avenues for the public's input."
She later told The Tyee that the public was welcome to contact her about the agreement through the government's website.
Bell 'anticipated' consulting
Clark's answer last week also differs markedly from the one Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Minister Pat Bell gave The Tyee in Oct. 2011, when he said, "I'm anticipating we will still do that, it's just unclear what we're consulting on at this point."
Bell said at the time he had already consulted extensively with the Union of B.C. Municipalities on the agreement.
Municipal governments have expressed concerns about elements of the agreement that may make it more difficult for them to buy locally or to unprivatize any previously public services.
The B.C. government would likely embark on a wider public consultation if it looked likely the agreement with the EU would succeed, Bell said eight months ago.
Between the time when Bell said it was too early to consult, and last week when Clark said it was too late, there has been no solicitation of public views on the agreement.
Nor has any level of government laid out for the public what is being negotiated, citing confidentiality. Indeed, in April as federal ministers pushed the deal, Bell told The Tyee that a non-disclosure agreement prevented him from giving the province's positions on anything that might be up for discussion.
Reversal disappointing, says Dix
"The government seems to have backed down on its commitment to openness and consultation," said Dix in a phone interview. "That may not be surprising, but it's disappointing."
An agreement will likely raise costs for individuals, municipalities and the provincial government, he said. At the same time there appears to be little benefit to British Columbians, he said.
Leaks from the negotiations have suggested the EU is seeking to extend patent protections for pharmaceuticals by as much as five and a half years. One report suggested such a change could cost B.C. in the order of $250 million a year, he said.
"There's a lot at stake for the public health care system," he said. "I don't know how a Canadian government could negotiate that away for us, or why... If provinces don't take a strong position on this question in the final agreement we may find the interests of provinces and individual taxpayers left out of the equation."
During last week's debate, Clark said she and all other premiers have all written to the federal government expressing concern about the impact an agreement might have on the cost of pharmaceutical drugs if it moves ahead with changes to patent rules.
"We're at least pushing them to take some action," Dix said. "It shows our efforts at least caused the province to write a letter to the government, and that's a good thing."
Clark said during the debate she would look into releasing a copy of that letter to the opposition, but Dix said he's yet to receive it and will follow up with her office.
A spokesperson in Clark's office told The Tyee via email that letters went from Health Minister Michael de Jong's office, not the premier's.
A ministry spokesperson said he would look into whether the letter or letters could be released. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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Feverish
50 weeks ago
Getting hard to breathe...
with the sickly stench of feces being vomited from the mouths of government politicians these days.
Every day now there is another assault on some aspect of Canadian life. How did we get to the point where certain politicians continually pull out the rug from under their constituents while the rest just stand silently and watch it happen?
Hard to believe that there has not been a single Con MP to leave the party! One BC Lib left his - to join the BC Cons. WTF?!
Fiat lux
50 weeks ago
Christy was told to shut up,
Christy was told to shut up, or she and her party won't be permitted to run again. That's all. The powers may be disappointed with the showing of the BC Conservatives and may be giving another chance to Christy and her half dead crew. For the time being anyway.
Nothing is permitted to interfere with the Big Plan for world takeover with BC and Canada being major prizes on account of major resource base and low population.
Ed Deak.
rantnic
50 weeks ago
GOOD? or BAD?
Should this agreement be "good" for B.C. and the people of B.C. you could bet your last dollar that Chrispy and her band of loyal robbers would be shouting the details from the rooftops of their ivory towers.
Should this agreement be "bad" for B.C., well just shut the *#@* up and say nothing would be Chrispy's answer.
Barryeng
50 weeks ago
To Ed . . .
Is'nt it telling that Allison Redford was invited to the latest Bilderburg Conference, but Christy Clark wasn't?
cyberclark
50 weeks ago
More from the Conservative Gang.
Free Trade agreement with Europe will mean a sharp curtailment of knock off drugs (about 90%of what we use)and a new financial model for so called public transit to name just a few.
There are good reasons why the US has not jumped on it before now!
Talon
50 weeks ago
CETA - desperately wanted by the 1%
This is a really bad trade agreement as are most of them. If we had a prime minister looking out for sustainability instead of a Prime Mistake looking out for his friends, CETA would now be in the dustbin of history. Get out and fight folks or be prepared for what is coming..... another disaster!
igbymac
50 weeks ago
Voltaire
"Man will never be free until the last politician is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
Our needs never really change, do they?
Fiat lux
50 weeks ago
All we need are some future
All we need are some future governments with enough brains and courage to cancel these criminal treaties, destroying democracy and enslaving people.
Ed Deak.
Steve Hetherington
50 weeks ago
We all know
Christy is a traitor,liar and a puppet.And now with Dix telling us this is "disappointing" just confirms to me they are cut from the same cloth.Way to go Dix--disappointing---really?
What an incredably strong and powerful opposition you present------|Christy must be quivering------just another coward chicken s#*t-shame
John Greg
50 weeks ago
Steve Hetherington
I agree completely.
I am beyond disappointed with Dix's caving.
"Disappointing" indeed!
Sellout.
Van Isle
50 weeks ago
Isn't it interesting; pundits
Isn't it interesting; pundits all over the world are saying that the EU is finished/ kaput/falling apart. Meanwhile, over here on this side of the Atlantic ditch, our idiotic elite are saying "Can we pleeese join yer club, can we, can we? Pleeese". "Hey, we'll even sell off the farm, cheap, if you let us join".
Skywalker
50 weeks ago
It is frustrating as hell...
...to discover that ordinary people understand the implication of these deals without too much of an explanation. Most are already asking where have the jobs gone and where are they still going. So unless the People who want to take over can convince them that there is a change coming, they won't bother to vote. I'm with Steve on the lack of passion in a response from the NDP.
Wasn't it the NDP in the 90's that held hearings on a Multilateral Agreement on Investment and Trade being discussed in secret by the WTO. When they blew the whistle on the WTO, the Liberals were not keen on holding hearings and the MSM thought it was a waste of money consulting the public. That whole deal was scuttled so the corporate interests went back to the drawing board and now try to do it by stealth and Premier Airhead says no to consultations.
So what if we close a few more GM plants or farm machinery plants? Good grief, isn't that a bit more than "disappointing".
mmphosis
50 weeks ago
"B.C.'s ineffectual unelected acting premier, Christy Clark"
may be dictating, but without the support of the people of BC these deals are illegitimate.
Fritz
50 weeks ago
As Central America goes So will Canada
Central America is "ahead" of Canada CETA "negotiations":
"...Central America obtained MEAGER access quotas for agricultural products such as sugar, textiles, beef and rice," whereas the EU 'gained full opening of Central American markets for a wide range of key agricultural and industrial goods, such as dairy products, vehicles, medicines and machinery,' it says in a communiqué.
Complete Access to Control
Moreover, on intellectual property, CID questions the MAJOR CONCESSIONS granted TO the EU in terms of protected geographical designations, patents and copyright: in the area of services, the bloc was granted complete access in the fields of finance, transport and energy, among others.
No Penalties for Infringements
Meanwhile, 'Central America has YIELDED GROUND in terms OF workers’ rights and environmental protection compared with other treaties,' since 'the agreement with the EU does not provide for penalties for those who infringe these rights for the sake of commercial interests,'..."
http://www.bilaterals.org/spip.php?article21606
zalm
49 weeks ago
Easy, folks
"What an incredably strong and powerful opposition you present------|Christy must be quivering"
When a tree falls in the forest, get out of the way. Let it fall. There's lots of time later to reduce it to 2x4s in a union sawmill.
Dix did the right thing. Premier Crunch is just begging him for a fight so she can yap about "families" again. Dix isn't giving it to her.
Just watch what gets said next March - that's when the big guns come out.
Frank
49 weeks ago
what zalm said
Christy continues to plummet in every category and Dix now has a 53% approval rating.