A Vote for Trade Justice – A Vote for Blue Communities

Action Alert from Council of Canadians – September 27 2010
This October and November, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and Prince Edward Island will head to the polls for municipal elections. Two important issues facing communities this year are the effect of recent international trade agreements on municipal autonomy and the need for major reinvestment in public water systems. The Council of Canadians has prepared materials that can be shared with municipal candidates across Canada, as well as a few questions to ask those candidates during mayoral or councillor debates.
With 80 per cent of Canadians now living in urban areas, our cities and towns are a foundation of the social economy, innovators of public policy, environmental first responders, and stewards of our shared waters. Across Canada, we need to support municipal leaders who will who understand that progressive economic and environmental policy should be fostered. We can’t let the future we want for our communities be threatened by international trade regimes and privatization.
In Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) negotiations, the EU is trying to restrict or ban municipalities from applying local preferences or local hiring conditions on public contracts, directing projects to social enterprises and low-income communities, and favoring the purchase of local foods in public buildings. Even the right to choose the public delivery of essential services such as water and electricity is threatened by CETA. For more information on CETA, see our website: http://www.canadians.org/CETA.
Take Action!
1. Talk to your local candidates about CETA – have them commit to trade justice
There’s good information out there on how CETA will affect local communities. Getting it into the hands of municipal candidates is as easy as sending an email or handing them a package at their campaign headquarters or during candidate debate. To help you start a conversation with your candidates about trade and municipalities, we offer the following resources:
–          A customizable letter to candidates about the issue: This could be pasted into the body of an email or printed off and handed out http://canadians.org/action/2010/Municipal-Elections.html
–          Fact sheet: Private water and CETA (bilingual): http://canadians.org/action/documents/municipal-elections-10/candidates-letter.rtf
–          A recent legal opinion about CETA and municipalities from the Centre for Civic Governance: http://www.civicgovernance.ca/files/uploads/FINAL-Shrybman_CETA_report_0.pdf
–          A condensed version of the CETA legal opinion: Easier to print off and hand out than the full report: http://canadians.org/action/documents/municipal-elections-10/legal-opinion-CETA.pdf
–          A Trade Justice and Fair Procurement Pledge: That way you’ll know who to turn to in the future on trade issues: http://canadians.org/action/documents/municipal-elections-10/trade-pledge.pdf
2. Have candidates commit to the Blue Communities Project
Because CETA and other new trade deals put public water at risk, the best way to protect water is for cities and towns to become Blue Communities. This happens when a community agrees to adopt water commons framework that:
–          Recognizes water as a human right.
–          Promotes publicly financed, owned and operated water and wastewater services.
–          Bans the sale of bottled water in public facilities and at municipal events.
There are lots of resources you can get your local candidates, including the official Blue Communities guidebook, on our website: http://www.canadians.org/bluecommunities.
Questions for candidates
–          Do you think it is right to apply ‘free’ trade rules to cities that limit our democratic capacity to support local business, jobs and protect the environment?
–          Will you demand that cities be taken off the table in ‘free’ trade talks with the European Union?
–          Will you consider how public spending can be used to support social goals such as job creation, environmental protection and local farming, and will you oppose any free trade deal that gets in the way of communities being able to spend money in this creative way?
–          Will you commit to the public delivery of water and wastewater services as the most accountable, democratic and efficient way to deliver this essential service?
–          Will you commit to reducing Council’s environmental and water footprint by banning bottled water in municipal buildings?
About the Council of Canadians
Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians is Canada’s largest grassroots advocacy organization with members and chapters across the country. We work at the local, regional and national level to promote progressive policies on fair trade, clean water, energy security, public health care, and other issues of social and economic concern to Canadians. For more information about CETA, trade or any of our other campaigns, visit www.canadians.org