Opinion

'Very Big Teeth' Threaten Campbell's Green Ambitions

TILMA trade agreement would penalize his plans.

By Murray Dobbin, 21 Feb 2007, TheTyee.ca

Colin Hansen

Colin Hansen: Read the contract

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Good grief, as Charlie Brown would say. B.C. and Alberta signed the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) last April and it comes into force this coming April Fool's Day. Yet the ministers responsible for TILMA in B.C. and Alberta don't seem to have a clue what they have got their governments into.

Alternatively, they do know the serious impacts TILMA will have and are just not willing to come clean with the public.

How else to make sense of the bizarre pronouncements about TILMA B.C. and Alberta officials are making?

The latest bit of weirdness emerged from B.C.'s Minister for Economic Development Colin Hansen on a CKNW talk show. Host Michael Smyth asked Hansen how he could square the throne speech promises for strong climate change regulation with TILMA. Hansen boldly claimed: "There is absolutely nothing in the TILMA agreement that will prevent us from bringing in the climate change program set out in the throne speech."

Well, that should make you wonder whether there are any real guts to the climate change program. Because TILMA states clearly that governments are prohibited from introducing new standards or regulations if they "impair" investment. Higher vehicle emission standards would violate TILMA because they would impair auto industry investments by adding to the industry's costs.

Sharp and dangerous

In talking up the agreement to a business crowd in Richmond last June, Alberta minister Gary Mar emphasized that TILMA has some "very big teeth." It provides for independent dispute panels whose decisions are enforceable through the courts. Governments can get socked repeatedly (something else Hansen doesn't get) with up to $5 million in penalties if they do not withdraw regulations found to be violations of the agreement.

Just the threat of a TILMA challenge might be enough to make the B.C. government back off higher vehicle emissions standards.

And to make matters worse, Gordon Campbell is doing a TILMA sales job on Ontario's Premier Dalton McGuinty. If TILMA is signed by Ontario, the home of most of Canada's auto manufacturing industry, it will mean the number of potential complainants against B.C.'s new auto emissions standards will expand exponentially.

In his interview with Hansen, Michael Smyth raised the point that TILMA does not allow governments to violate the agreement just because they have good intentions -- like protecting the environment. The agreement says whatever governments do to pursue their objectives cannot be too restrictive to business.

Similar wording shows up in other trade agreements, and has produced a string of losses for governments trying to defend their regulations. One dispute panel ruled that "The onus is on the respondent to demonstrate...that no other available option would have met the legitimate objective."

So B.C. could find itself in the unenviable position of trying to convince a panel of trade lawyers it had no alternative but to implement higher mandatory controls on vehicle emissions. B.C.'s odds of being able to do this are very slim, particularly because other provinces have not seen the need to take such strong action.

'We are going to make sure'

Perhaps flustered by getting the first challenging question from a journalist he has had on TILMA, Hansen responded to Smyth by implying B.C. and Alberta could sort of stack the jury if they get a TILMA complaint they do not like.

He claimed that all B.C. and Alberta ever intended with TILMA was to make sure companies from both provinces got treated the same -- given a "level playing field." If someone tried to use TILMA to attack regulations that were "non-discriminatory," then B.C. and Alberta could choose panellists for the case who would rule against this kind of complaint.

Said Hansen: "We are going to make sure that those panellists actually understand the objectives of this agreement."

But defending governments only get to pick one of the members of a TILMA panel.

Private complainants also get to pick a panel member, and their choice is likely to be whoever on the list of potential panellists would be most sympathetic to their case.

In addition, governments are not permitted under these agreements to coach panellists about the outcomes they want.

If B.C. and Alberta intended only that TILMA prevent governments from favouring local companies, they should have said so in the agreement. Instead they have made legally binding commitments under TILMA not to maintain programs and regulations that restrict any investment, not to establish new regulations that do this, and not to do a whole raft of other things even when they are treating local and out-of-province companies exactly the same. So they are counting on dispute panels to ignore the actual words and meaning of the agreement when making their decisions.

Trade lawyers have reputations to maintain. They aren't likely to sacrifice them just to please Colin Hansen or some other politician.

But say a panel did just ignore the legally binding text of TILMA and tried to decide a case on the basis of the "intent" of the B.C. and Alberta governments. They would have a very rough time trying to make sense of all the contradictory government statements of intent. Take, for example, the question of what happens to occupational qualifications. TILMA stipulates that workers qualified to work in one province have to be recognized as qualified to work in the other province without additional training. So it seems pretty clear that standards will go down.

Shred it

On the CKNW show, Hansen was all over the map on this issue. In reference to teacher qualifications, Hansen denied TILMA meant standards between the two provinces had to be the same, but in the same breath talked about Alberta potentially having to "match" B.C.'s standards. He claimed TILMA would not necessarily force B.C. to lower its teacher standards to those of Alberta, but also said the agreement means "if there is somebody who is certified to be a teacher in Alberta, they can come to B.C. and become a teacher without going through a whole bunch of extra rigmarole."

If dispute panels were not confused enough by the above, consider the following: Hansen repeatedly claims that TILMA will create billions of dollars in benefits for B.C. and tens of thousand of new jobs. But when you read the Conference Board report these claims are drawn from, you find that almost all the sectors where TILMA is supposed to produce these benefits -- the resource sectors -- are ones that are not actually covered by the agreement. So is it Hansen's "intent" that these sectors be covered, or does he just not know what is in the Conference Board report?

Rather than trying to find a bunch of trade lawyers willing to be panellists on the basis that they will ignore pretty much everything that TILMA says, B.C. and Alberta should just recognize the agreement is a colossal mistake that should never be implemented.

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Murray Dobbin writes his State of the Nation column twice monthly for The Tyee. You can find previous ones here.

25 Comments:

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  • Grumpy

    4 years ago

    So.........?

    So what else is new?

    All we ever had from the Liberals is baffle gab and nonsense. They report to the corporate elites and to no one else!

  • Gary

    4 years ago

    ?

    What amazes me is that he wasn't prepped by Smythe before the interview. Or was he? Another classic example of a Liberal minister not studying contracts or treaties or whatever. I wonder if he will tear this one up?

  • Fiat lux

    4 years ago

    What else is new? All

    What else is new?

    All these so called "trade agreements" are designed to remove the democratic decision making powers of peoples and replace them with corporate dictatorships.

    This started to a limited extent with Mulroney's FTA, then, smelling blkood, attempted to put corporate dictatorship over the 29 OECD nations with the MAI in 1997, collapsed when the French governmnent backed out, fearing a revolution, but now included in every "trade agreement" around the world.

    The French and the Dutch killed it, at least for the time being, by refusing the EU Constitution, based on the same principles, but accepted by all the other EU goverments, and we can rest assured that
    it will be in the SPP and NAU, pushed by the big business asociations around the world. Tom d'Aquino, John Manley, Harper and Emerson must earn their keep and are busy working on it.

    Funny thing, "unions are bad" and should be eliminated as "trade distortions", but the conspiracies to extort and rule by the Council of Chief Executives, the Boards
    of Trade, the Bilderbergers, the Trilaterals, the WEF, the WB, the IMF etc. etc. are "GOOD" in the twisted minds of the faithully crooked.

    It used to be that businesses were supposed to be "customer friendly", but under the "wealth creating" market economy theory, the customers are supposed to be "business friendly" and lie down to be run over so they can squeeze the last drop of blood out of them.

    Ed Deak.

  • Gary

    4 years ago

    Greening of B.C.

    I just finished reading a few articles on the governments about turn on the environment. And I picked up on a spin forming from the government. Taken in context with this budget they are taking the burden off the corporations (who polluted the environment in the first place in the name of corporate profit) and are putting the responsibility of cleaning up their mess square on the shoulders of the electorate.

  • Fiat lux

    4 years ago

    Gary....Of course. They're

    Gary....Of course. They're "business friendly" and counting their future directorships. I don't think any multinational would hire any of them, but the BC bunch might throw them a few.

    Would you hire either of them to sweep your shop? Daaaaaaaaaaaaa ........

    Ed Deak.

  • alive

    4 years ago

    Hansen

    One more minister/puppet who does not have a clue!
    Like the Taylor-chick it seem to be all about charisma!
    I am sure that the puppet masters are happy to manipulate such charming little toys.

  • freebear

    4 years ago

    April Fools implementation of TILMA

    The launch date of TILMA says it all.

    Watch the stall tactics with regards to climate change begin.............

  • Skywalker

    4 years ago

    Another good one Murray

    I see this deal as another way to reduce the significance of borders to define the jurisdiction where we can do things to look after the people who live within those borders. Like free trade with the US this guarantees that decisions will always be made by the corporate sector and social programs will take that gradual downward slide.

    CanWest is simply an organ for the corporate sector and has been for a long time. They can not risk truth as that might set us free of these clowns.

  • DJT

    4 years ago

    ?????

    Un fricken believable. I agree with freebear- sit back and watch the stall tactics on environmental clean up begin. Actually, I didn't believe a word of it from the "get go". In my opinion, Campbell is simply chasing polls, as per usual.

    As for the Government subsequently shifting responsibility for cleaning up the environment to the electorate, as Gary said above, it has already started. One has only to read Campbell's "article" in the editorial section of the Stun last night. Un fricken believable.

  • alchemicwelder

    4 years ago

    trades qualification barriers

    boo-ya I'm currently trying to go to Ft. Mcmurray as a journeyman welder to see all the hoopla(and carnage),. THere sure is a hassle for me to become a alberta 'B' pressure welder... If i'm to do ( in B.C.)the B.C. pressure test(BC-p-100) that is accepted in Alberta it will cost me from 400 to over 600 dollars to do the 3.5 hour practical pipe welding test, and still must pay 136.50 in alberta to register my qualification in that province. only if I have my Interprovincal red seal stamp( which I have). If I wait till March 15th to do the test, it'll just cost me the 136.50(no pst) at a test facility. any other trade would just go and get a job with the I.P. red seal stamp with no extra cost.. this applies to union and non- union environments, I'm preferring the union travel card route but we'll see what comes out of this ordeal

    I don't know if it's a tax grab or what ..?
    If I fail the test I won't be able to re-test for another 30 days and be stuck in Edmonton with lesser job prospects only structural jobs .. so no oil and gas money for me , I guess it really is a 'pressure test'... thanks for listening...

  • canary

    4 years ago

    TILMA -signed,sealed and almost delivered?

    Thank-you Murray for reminding us about this insideous agreement.Just another layer of the so called (UN)free trade agreement.A memory pops into my head in regard to a private american transnational postal service who was about to take Canada Post to court, or maybe did, not that long ago saying that they enjoyed a monopoly in Canada as a crown corp. and could be taken to court.It seems that the powers that be would like to "set up" our health system next.
    This government does not understand "the common good".It is not in their vocabulary. Using taxes generated by the common citizens for the benefit of the majority, which includes all sectors and not pro-rated according to income, please; is not understood. If they did really want to serve the common good; they would be leading with real incentives for sustainability in the face of climate change.
    WHERE is the democratically elected opposition to this TILMA agreement??? There is a substantial number of representatives in the legislative assembly who are not doing their job to be proactive to see where this agreement cuts out local initiatives,local young workers and opens the door to megabuster businesses beyond borders to do whatever they want with our resources.Is it true that they bring whatever their energy consumption styles and practices may be with them which override our provincial regulations or even federal and we have no jurisdiction whatsoever??? We know that business has no loyalty other than to making a profit. But the media and industry managers need to take responsibility for the "carbon cough" we are all developing!

    All the recent talk about responding to climate change is just that...talk. Glib talk! How can young people be encouraged to trust their elected representatives when there is a smile and promise about their future living environment and a nasty piece of paper in the briefcase that virtually condemns the future to the same old resourse gobbling practices.

  • Cynic

    4 years ago

    Another good article from

    Another good article from Murray. However, this agreement is not a "mistake". We have to disabuse ourselves of the notion of elite incompetence and stop giving our elected officials the benefit of the doubt. Tilma is the latest elite salvo against the people, yet another step to the removal of any shred of power we might have over our own lives, another step to sequester our common wealth into their pockets. They are very good, and they are very bad. I think we have to acknowledge who and what they are before we can hope to stop them.

  • BC Mary

    4 years ago

    Valuable article. 5 stars out of 5, Murray Dobbin

    But what do we do?

    Surely we can't let this runaway bus careen right through that April 1/07 confirmation date?

    TILMA doesn't just stop Campbell's supposed Green Ambitions (if he ever had one).

    How are we going to stop TILMA ... ?

  • woody

    4 years ago

    WHERE is the democratically elected opposition

    canary asked, and a proper question it is,

    Quote:
    WHERE is the democratically elected opposition to this TILMA agreement??? There is a substantial number of representatives in the legislative assembly who are not doing their job to be proactive to see where this agreement cuts out local initiatives

    Their sitting there in Victoria scratching their ass, hoping that no one remembers they are there. I’ve said this before. There is absolutely no incentive to draw attention to yourself, or cause yourself a work load, when your sucking down the money that an MLA draws.
    They all just got a nice raise, why go rock the boat it won’t bring you any more money .Haven’t you heard the old saying ‘Fock you Jack, I’m alright” It’s very obvious that no one gives a sh!t anymore.

  • inkioko

    4 years ago

    Direct Action

    Hi Mary,

    If our "leaders" aren't representing us, (TILMA) then perhaps we shouldn't feel accountable to any arbitrary corporate property "rules" they seem to hold sacred.

  • sdgreen

    4 years ago

    The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling...

    Good Grief. Dobbin thinks too narrowly.

    Methinks that any Provincial Law with respect to climate change, will be over ruled by both Federal and International laws and treaties. Mind you, no doubt there will be court cases over the issue both for and against.

    The education thing as indicated in TILMA is really not that scary. Such is similar to the Inter Provincial Agreement respecting Apprenticeship training / qualification programs. Even the trade part should not be a problem.

    Where is the beef?

  • canary

    4 years ago

    More than beef

    Well,sdgreen, Go back to Murray Dobbin's article of 3 weeks ago; 'Corporate Rights Deal to Make us April Fools". You read it? It tells you about more than just a teacher's job.
    This is more than a beef! This is about what is going down over there in Victoria and the citizens of the province not being represented by any questioning by the "loyal" opposition.
    This is about lip service only, to address the serious problems of a deteriorating environment for right NOW and more seriously, the future.

  • Cynic

    4 years ago

    My beef is, who asked me?

    My beef is, who asked me? Where's the debate? Was tilma an issue in the last election? I didn't vote for this. It's like the mai, foisted upon us without regard for the people. As with the nau and the spp, the elite know that an informed public would never approve or even consider such agreements, so they proceed by stealth and by fiat.

  • canary

    4 years ago

    Question and Answer Time!

    Right, Cynic!We electors don't get asked our opinions about the really important stuff that is legislated over there in Victoria. The Single Transferable Vote might have been a better representation of the electorate if we could have bumped up the approval a tad from the general public vote. But even with the lack of explanation and support from those who had originally got the thing going, we almost got a better way to get decisions made with more accurate representation.

    In the meanwhile, we allow others to debate OR NOT, our well being in this province.We have to keep asking the questions before our MLA.s will be accountable. Do they read our concerns, letters, e-mails,phonecalls? Do they take into consideration the concensus of opinion in their constituencies, more than the powerful lobbies and status quo of their regions? Some do. This is as close to democracy as we can get?

    In the meanwhile we keep asking the questions and maybe those questions get asked in Question Period in the legislature.

  • RickW

    4 years ago

    Colin Hanson

    He claimed that all B.C. and Alberta ever intended with TILMA was to make sure companies from both provinces got treated the same

    Yeah -- and all the Australians wanted to do when they introduced rabbits, was to have a little familiar sport.........

    TILMA will be the excuse for not doing green stuff in BC...........

  • RickW

    4 years ago

    Colin Hanson

    Quote:
    He claimed that all B.C. and Alberta ever intended with TILMA was to make sure companies from both provinces got treated the same

    Yeah -- and all the Australians wanted to do when they introduced rabbits, was to have a little familiar sport.........

    TILMA will be the excuse the Libs are looking for to not go green in BC...........

  • Bytesmiths

    4 years ago

    Quote:But what do we do?...

    Quote:
    But what do we do?... How are we going to stop TILMA?

    There is a group that is working against this via letter writing campaigns. The Island Tides (http://www.IslandTides.com) is a little eight-page weekly, yet the latest issue had TWO letters bashing TILMA, plus a story on MLA Jenny Kwan's calling for public hearings on TILMA. The word is getting out!

    If you really want to do something, you can join the "stoptilma" listserve by sending an email to:

    .

    Here is the letter that was published in the Island Tides. Feel free to borrow from it "liberally" (pun intended) when writing to *your* local paper.

    ----------------

    Dear Editor,

    Everyone is praising the Liberal's new coat of green paint, as though the two proposed coal-fired power plants have already received a final stake through the heart.

    However there is a large problem -- a problem so huge, that letting two dirty coal plants be built in BC is just the tip of the iceberg. The problem is the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement, better known as TILMA.

    An even bigger problem is that Gordon Campbell knows damn well that he has little power to implement the wonderful-sounding things he outlined in the Throne Speech. His new-found greenness rings hollow and insincere in the face of TILMA, which he quietly signed, without public nor legislative review, in April 2006.

    If you haven't heard of TILMA, it is to BC what Measure 37 was to Oregon two years ago -- in effect, a "harmonization" of regulations between BC and Alberta, with emphasis on protecting property rights of investors. But unlike Oregon's Measure 37, TILMA was made law without public nor legislative input. At least the citizens of Oregon got suckered by an expensive, big-business initiative campaign, instead of being quietly ignored, as with TILMA!

    Under Oregon's Measure 37, an owner of property in the middle of suburbia can decide they want to put a pig farm there. If the local zoning laws preclude this -- as they should -- the property owner can file a claim to be compensated for the value of the "taking" of his proposed use of the land, and the jurisdiction must either pay up, or allow the pig farm. Oregon courts are currently clogged with some 7,000 such claims involving over half a million acres, according to a study by The Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies, at Portland State University.

    TILMA could be interpreted similarly. It has the potential to gut the authority of Islands Trust, the Agricultural Land Commission, and Regional Districts and local governments throughout BC. One could envision the opposite of the situation above, where an Albertan developer chooses to put four houses per acre in the middle of prime BC farmland -- or collect $5 million for NOT doing so, as decided by an extra-judicial tribunal of his investor-class peers.

    I imagine that once TILMA quietly goes into effect on (you ready for this?) April Fools Day, the two proposed coal-fired power plants will be revived, with the BC government saying, "Sorry, our hands are tied by this here piece of paper!" It says it right there in Article 5, Paragraph 2: "Parties shall not establish new standards or regulations that operate to restrict or impair trade, investment, or labour mobility." I'll bet the lawyers at Compliance Power Corporation and AESWapiti Energy Corporation (contractors for the two proposed coal fired plants) are already thumbing through their briefs.

    American voters in five western states wisely defeated TILMA-like initiatives last November, with only Arizona joining Oregon in relinquishing regulation in favor of investment. Shouldn't BC voters have the same opportunity?

    :::: Jan Steinman, EcoReality: http://www.EcoReality.org
    :::: 160 Sharp Road, Salt Spring Island, BC V8K 2P6 Canada
    :::: +1 250.537.2024

  • kl

    4 years ago

    TILMA public consultations

    I wrote an email to Colin Hansen and Glen Scobie from the Ministry of Economic Development replied. He obfuscates that numerous public consultations took place regarding TILMA and various labour and public advocacy groups were consulted. However, he is not in fact actually talking about TILMA, rather, the Agreement on Internal Trade. Anyone ever heard of this? I don't care if public consultations took place regarding the AIT, I want to know why there were no public consultations directly related to TILMA.

  • doggone

    4 years ago

    Relaxed down here

    Valladolid, Yucatan:
    All those concerns seemed so far away a few days ago. Somehow the Mayans do not have to worry about TILMA. I am watching and wondering how we might follow their example.
    But I should be back up to Vancouver island speed next week.
    See you then

  • silvervalley

    4 years ago

    TILMA poll and forum

    Thanks for the information, Bytesmiths, I will indeed borrow 'liberally.'

    There is a poll and forum at StopTilma:
    http://stoptilma.com/

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