Dear Editor:
Toward the end of 2007, public events and petitions, letters, demonstrations and meetings with MLAs and MPs formed opposition to TILMA, the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement between British Columbia and Alberta, supplanted in 2008 by the expanded New West Partnership.
The Town of Rimbey recently suffered the effects of TILMA/New West (Council OKs 3% 2011 tax increase, Rimbey Review, March 15, 2011). That Rimbey got away with supporting local businesses this way, this long, may be remarkable. But it was clear from their lawyer’s advice that TILMA was the reason why the town council had to end the tax breaks.
In December 2007, the Red Deer chapter of the Council of Canadians warned in a letter to the rural and urban Alberta municipal federations that TILMA was a bad deal for local government. It would remove the ability to do what Rimbey did — encourage local business through tax policy. The rural municipal body declined to respond, and the urban one curtly acknowledged receipt of the letter — nothing else. It is a virtual certainty municipal councils in Alberta never learned much about TILMA, since the umbrella bodies were so obviously in support of it, having officially approved it within weeks of its passage.
TILMA is one of many offspring of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which delivers up similar results to all levels of government in Canada. NAFTA, like TILMA and the others, is mostly not about free trade at all. More than two-thirds of its text is about tearing down the ability of governments to serve the interests of their own people in the face of the trade desires of large corporations.
It’s always fun to say we told you so. Red Deer Council of Canadians is having fun now.
Ken Collier, chair
Council of Canadians
Red Deer and Area Chapter