Editor, The News:
I was extremely disappointed that the new Liberal government went ahead and signed the Trans Pacific Partnership, an agreement that was negotiated in secret by the previous government!
One of the Liberals’ campaign promises was to have meaningful dialog with Canadians on the impacts the TPP will have on Canada.
They also promised to make decisions using science and facts rather than ideology. With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Washington last week, this promise appears to have been thrown out the window. The TPP is not good for Canadians. Like NAFTA, this is not a free trade deal, it is a corporate trade deal that grants foreign corporations more rights, while workers’ rights remain almost totally unprotected.
Employers will be able to transfer skilled trades and technical employees to Canada, with no requirement that they attempt to hire within Canada first.
Labour provisions of the TPP have no teeth and provide no guarantees that basic workers’ rights in the TPP partner countries will be protected.
Since the early 1990s, as international trade agreements have proliferated, thousands of jobs have been lost, work has become more precarious, income inequality has grown, and corporations have found more ways to escape responsibilities to treat workers fairly.
A Tufts University simulation that used the UN Global Policy Model projects greater income inequality in every TPP country by 2025 as a result of this agreement. The TPP will only make things worse.
Cherie Delainey
Maple Ridge
