It's been 20 years since Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, promising more and better jobs, better public services and social programmes and increased prosperity for all.
However, there are fewer jobs today in the traded goods sector than there were before free trade; many people are being forced into unwanted early retirement, part-time jobs or pay cuts; governments have slashed social programs; big cities are running out of money; labour laws have been dismantled and fewer workers have good paying union jobs with security, pensions and benefits. The only ones who seem to have benefited from NAFTA are the large corporations and business elites.
Nowhere has this change been pointed out more clearly and in extensive detail than in Maude Barlow's book, Too Close for Comfort, which was published in 2005.
Barlow is the national chairperson of The Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy organization. She is the bestselling author of 15 books and has been nominated for the Nobel peace prize. Her latest book, Blue Gold: The Battle Against the Corporate Theft of Water, warns of the growing trend of countries handing over control of their water resources to large corporations bent on profit and outlines steps to take to avoid this catastrophe.
In Too Close for Comfort, Barlow details the extensive influence of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) over a wide range of policy decisions by the federal government: military strategy, health care, the environment, social programs, labour law, natural resources, energy, foreign affairs and water. With their close connections to American corporations and their focus on profits, the profound influence of the CCCE poses a threat to Canadian sovereignty. Many of their decisions involve contractual obligations with the United States which are permanent and irreversible, meaning that fewer and fewer decisions will be made in Canada, with Canadian interests at heart. One of the worst examples of this is that under NAFTA we have an obligation to provide oil to the U.S. even though doing this will leave Canadians short.
Barlow's book is not all doom and gloom. She does suggest a wide range of possible solutions for maintaining the kind of country and society we want. What is needed now is for all Canadians to throw off their complacency and tell our politicians what we want. In the upcoming federal election, let's make an issue of undoing the strong American influence on Canadian policy and return our country to a position as a strong and caring independent voice in global politics.
Katy Austin,
President, Simcoe Grey
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