B.C.-Alberta free trade pact puts greed-driven investors first and the public last

Edited by Maude Barlow et al.

On April 1, 2007, a new free trade pact came into effect between Alberta and B.C. It's called the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) and it will have a devastating effect on local democracy, public health and the environment. While currently confined to Western Canada, provincial governments in Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and the Maritimes have all shown an interest in signing on. This makes TILMA a fight we have to wage locally, provincially and nationally.

TILMA was signed by the premiers of Alberta and B.C., without public consultation or legislative debate, in April 2006. The agreement allows corporations and individuals to sue provincial governments for any provincial or municipal government measure they feel "restricts or impairs" their investment (i.e. their profits). Under TILMA, even measures designed to protect the environment and public health are vulnerable to attack from corporate lawsuits with compensation penalties as high as $5-million.

Not only was TILMA not debated by either provincial legislature, but municipalities and other local governments weren't even consulted before it was signed. In fact, cities and towns across B.C. and Alberta are just now coming to realize how much democratic control they will lose under TILMA, and many are fighting to have municipal government action exempt from the agreement's dangerously broad reach.

We know that other provinces have shown an interest in signing TILMA. We know that the 2007 federal budget plugged the agreement by name and that Industry Minister Maxime Bernier sees it as inspiration for a renewed push to harmonize provincial regulations across Canada -- and possibly beyond. Some U.S. states have shown an interest in also signing TILMA, which would lead to massive deregulation in Canada, as we harmonize policies with the U.S.

Seen in that light, TILMA becomes an issue of democracy and of deep integration with the United States.

Opposition to the far-reaching free trade pact continues to grow thanks to intense local action from chapter activists in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario. One enormously successful tactic has been to speak with municipal governments directly about the dangers of TILMA. Citizens in Alberta and B.C. have also targeted their MLAs to demand the provincial governments tear up TILMA.

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