Posted: Tuesday, 5 June 2007

Introduction

The Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on the Economy is studying the possibility of joining the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA), which came into force between Alberta and British Columbia on April 1, 2007. This agreement gives business sweeping powers to sue provincial governments, municipalities and school boards over a wide range of public policies, laws and regulations.

TILMA’s supporters acknowledge that “signing TILMA would reduce our sovereignty” through “reduced legislative independence”, but argue that the agreement’s economic benefits would outweigh these costs. However, since there are almost no trade barriers between Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC, the agreement would deliver virtually no economic gain. The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) recommends that Saskatchewan not join TILMA and instead work with other provinces toward transparent, incremental solutions to any minor inter-provincial barriers that may exist.

In February 2007, the CLC and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a paper demonstrating that alleged inter-provincial barriers have almost no measurable economic effect. This paper revealed that the Conference Board’s projection of TILMA adding $4.8 billion to BC’s economy was based on shoddy methodology and arithmetic errors.

In April 2007, the Government of Saskatchewan released another Conference Board study, which estimates that TILMA would add $291 million to Saskatchewan’s economy, along with two independent reviews of this study. This submission examines the myth of inter-provincial barriers, TILMA’s promised economic benefits for Saskatchewan, the Conference Board’s methodology, and TILMA’s costs.

Read more - Download the PDF.