Underhanded hollowing out of Canada: What Conservatives do best

Here is a horribly bad deal, never trust a single thing that comes out of this Conservative government - its the lesson of the past 4 years.

In particular, the Ontario wing of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Council of Canadians criticize the deal for giving permanent and unrestricted foreign access to publicly funded contracts that supply schools, universities, social services and hospitals.

The labour groups warn that, if approved by the provinces, the deal would be the first time Canadian governments agreed to open their procurement contracts to bids by other World Trade Organization members since the landmark Canada-U.S. free trade deal of 1988.

Ontario and the other provincial governments have until Friday to peruse the pact and suggest amendments. After that, the Canadian and U.S. governments will present the proposal to the WTO for formal approval, and the plan will be enacted as early as next Tuesday, citizen's advocacy group the Council of Canadians said.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/02/11/buy-american-deal-opposition.html

Harper's Conservatives have never been interested in Canadian jobs; they signed this deal at the end of the US stimulus package with little left to be spent under the "buy American" rules and thus little for Canadian workers. The consequences however are massive - under the current trade structures, countries can only move in one direction without being severely punished and that is toward deregulation and privatization, even if neither of this is the 'best option' for most Canadians. Neo-liberal frameworks did not truly die in the crisis, they became more rigid. Why? Because they have been very efficient in transferring wealth from the poor and 'middle class' to the wealthiest in society.

This deal runs right into those open arms and gives nothing for Canadian workers (or American workers for that matter) because decisions made solely on 'profit motive' in the public sector mean worse working conditions and worse provision of services. The public is not in 'business' of making profit for share-holders, or at least it should not be, it is in the 'business' of serving public good.

Canada is a superbly wealthy country, we do not need to bow down to anyone to make our economy better for working Canadians - least of all to investment bankers.

This deal is a precursor to the massive cuts to social spending and public jobs, ultimately for the benefit of tax cuts to the rich and reduced public good for the rest.