Free Trade and the Tar Sands
From August 20-21, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be meeting in Montebello, Quebec with U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderón for continued closed door discussions on the proposed Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America.
See Integrate This for more information.
Activists here in Montreal are scrambling, not to organize a bike trip, but to challenge this new NAFTA on speed and to decry the secretive way in which discussions have been taking place.
The following is a link to an interest opinion piece by the Council Of Canadians:
http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/index.html
Trade deals have a heavy impact on the nature of oil sands developments. Under NAFTA’s proportionality clause we are required to maintain most recent export proportions. Our oil is not really ours. Not only is Alberta oil sold at one of the cheapest royalty rates in the world, but it is also obligingly earmarked for our southern neighbors, regardless of our needs here in Canada and blind to the mess it leaves behind.
As a Maritimer living in Montreal, I often try to understand what business I have meddling in Albertan affairs. The following excerpt struck a particular chord:
“Canada…a net exporter, still imports 40 per cent of its oil – 850,000 barrels per day – to meet 90 per cent of Atlantic Canada’s and Quebec’s needs, and 40 per cent of Ontario’s”.
“Western Canada cannot supply all of eastern Canadians’ needs, because NAFTA reserves Canadian oil for Americans’ security of supply. Canada now exports 63 per cent of the oil it produces and 56 per cent of its natural gas”.
I am not a big nationalist (why draw lines in the sand, just as the tide is coming up?), but the suggestion that we serve Goliath at the expense of David leaves me dumbfounded and leads me to call into question the very idea of confederation. What is this country all about anyways?
As I bike across Alberta I hope to gain a better understanding of the many trappings of trade and how it impacts our energy strategy here in Canada.
I just came across a like-minded editorial by Linda MacQuaid in today’s Toronto Star, questioning Canada’s Energy Strategy, or lack thereof.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/238985
Here’s a link to a speech by Gary Lunn, the Federal Minister of Natural Resources.
It draws a nice straight line between oil sands development and the SPP negotiations.
http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/media/speeches/2006/200622_e.htm
Ok, so I was wrong. It turns out activists here in Montreal are indeed scrambling to organize a bike trip - a bike brigade to Montebello.
Interested?
Contact: turnthetide@ckut.ca
Added to my favourites list and added to my blogroll.