To the Editor,
Why should Canada discriminate against its own businesses and communities in favor of a China free trade agreement?
Why should Canadian taxpayers have to pay foreign companies if their “economic expectations” were thwarted by our health, safety and environmental laws?
Under NAFTA Canadian taxpayers, paid millions of dollars in damages to a US PCB disposal firm that claimed a lost profit when the export of PCB contaminated waste was banned.
In 2011 Canada paid $130 million to US based Abitibi Bowater Corporation as compensation for contested water and timber rights over the legal objections of the Province of Newfoundland.
If the Northern Gateway pipeline is built it is expected that China’s oil companies will purchase the entire operation.
With the passage of the China-Canada FTA, local, provincial and what’s left of federal environmental laws would just be swept aside in favor of “economic expectations”.
Sheila Harrington,
Lasqueti Island
