Posted: Wednesday, 15 December 2010

In advance of a meeting of the Committee on Internal Trade (CIT) ministers in Saskatoon on December 3, the CLC, together with a wide cross-section of Canadian civil society groups, urged governments to deny corporations the right to sue the provinces and territories. A coalition of business groups is pushing provinces and territories hard to allow this “investor-state” dispute process in the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT).

This same process in NAFTA has allowed corporations to bypass Canadian courts, and challenge health, environmental, and resource policies before private trade panels. Canada has paid out over $150 million to private investors under this process, with $130 million to just one company — AbitibiBowater — this year.

Unfortunately, the AIT has already been moving in this direction. Two years ago, the Committee on Internal Trade agreed to include penalties of up to $5 million in cases where one province or territory successfully charged another with interfering with interprovincial trade or investment flows. Ontario’s restrictions on the sale of dairy blends (oil-based spreads and other products containing less than 50 per cent dairy) were struck down last month by an AIT panel. The province must now change its laws or face a fine. This is contrary to basic notions of democracy.

If provinces and territories include an investor-to-state dispute process in the AIT, corporations would be able to launch many challenges to provincial and territorial policies. Democratic decisions would be overturned, and the result would be a chill on government policy of all types for fear of sparking costly lawsuits.

The groups below asked the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to reject the inclusion of an investor-to-state dispute process as proposed by Canadian business lobby groups.

Endorsed by:

Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), ATTAC-Québec, Canadian Auto Workers’ (CAW), Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA), Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA), Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), Canadian Health Coalition (CHC), Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) ,Canadian Union of Public Employees – Ontario, Common Frontiers, Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), Council of Canadians, National Farmers Union (NFU), National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), New Brunswick Federation of Labour (NBFL), Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour (NLFL), Nova Scotia Federation of Labour (NSFL), Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU), Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO), Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL), Union paysanne of Québec, United Steelworkers (USW), Yukon Federation of Labour (YFL)