Don't force free trade on provinces & municipalities

Larry Brown, NUPGE's national secretary-treasurer, says provincial and municipal procurement policies must be shielded from the reach of international free trade agreements.

Ottawa (21 July 2009) - The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is appealing to the Harper government to shield provincial and municipal governments from international trade provisions restricting procurement policies.

Larry Brown, NUPGE's national secretary-treasurer, says in a letter to International Trade Minister Stockwell Day that NUPGE has "become very concerned" about efforts by Ottawa to eliminate the right of provincial and municipal governments to favour Canadian goods and suppliers.
 
The letter has also been sent to provincial premiers and territorial leaders.

Brown says several recent events make it apparent that the Harper administration is pushing for narrower procurement practices that will hurt long-term Canadian interests. These include:

• preliminary negotiations between Canada and the European Union (EU) for a comprehensive trade and economic agreement;
• Canada's position on 'Buy American' policies in the U.S.; and
• attempts by Ottawa to convince provinces to open their procurement policies to American and Mexican companies under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to enable Canadian companies to get access to U.S. stimulus funds.

"The fact that you are labeling local, state, and provincial limits on procurement as 'protectionism' is not really helpful in understanding the issue. Putting a pejorative label on something is not nearly the same thing as an informed, research-based position," Brown writes.

"We are convinced that the vast majority of Canadians would not want their tax money to be spent to buy products from another country at the expense of local suppliers. We believe Canadians would rather have their tax dollars stimulating the local and Canadian economies, instead of stimulating the economies of the U.S., Mexico or the EU."

'How does it help?'

Brown says throwing Canadian procurement policies open internationally will hurt Canadians.

"How does it help the citizens of Canada if the steel needed for a public building, as part of the infrastructure program, is purchased from abroad? It does not stimulate the Canadian economy in any way, shape or form and it does not help our local steel companies, or our local workforce," he states.

"If procurement is simply thrown open internationally, clearly the bias will be to low wage, low cost producers. Canada’s tax dollars would be going in part to companies in the southern U.S. where laws prevent effective unionization, and where wages are therefore very low, and to the maquiladora zones in Mexico where neither workers nor the environment have any legal rights," Brown argues.

"We firmly believe that, when spending public monies to purchase goods and services, our governments have a responsibility to support Canadian companies and workers."

Brown also notes that procurement is about services as well as goods.

"Any move to have municipal and provincial government procurement covered by free trade provisions will leave Canada, its provinces and municipalities, open to bids on local services from low-wage companies in whichever other jurisdiction is covered by the trade deal," he argues.

"The EU has already experienced local suppliers of services being pre-empted by lower wage providers of that service from countries with lower standards of living."

Brown says NUPGE and its Component unions will "vigorously oppose" any international agreement that prevents municipal, provincial, territorial or even the federal government from investing public resources in job creation, community economic development and economic renewal through its purchasing policies.

"Canada’s interests would not be served by trading away the power of governments to support local economic renewal and job creation especially in a period of economic crisis and serious job losses," Brown adds. His complete letter to Day is available at the link below.

NUPGE

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE

More information:
Text of letter from Larry Brown to Stockwell Day - July 2009