South Cowichan Life Magazine

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Crowder’s Column
By Jean Crowder, MP
Food security continues to be a burning issue for many people living
in Cowichan Valley.
Like many of the places around the world facing food
insecurity, it isn’t just the ability to farm, or climate change or markets
that determine how secure a food system is.
Too often, it is trade policies that help create food insecurity.
A new trade deal being negotiated behind closed doors could have
far-reaching effects on our local food security.
The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)
will have an enormous impact on our country.
Under CETA new intellectual property laws would allow
corporations an unprecedented amount of control over how farmers
use their seeds, preventing them from selling or reusing them. And
if farmers were even accused of doing so, they could be subject to
pre-emptive seizure of their property without any wrongdoing even
having been proved.
Other areas of concern include commercial access to vital
public services such as water distribution.The three biggest players
in the water world, accounting for over 70% of the water market,
are all European Multinationals ranked among the top profit-making
corporations in the world on the Fortune 500.
Clearly it is in these companies’ best long term interest to
lobby heavily to access Canadian public water delivery systems and
ownership, turning them into a money-making enterprise rather than
a right of all Canadians.
The EU is also pressuring the Canadian government for better
access to our waters as well as relaxing our export regulations on
unprocessed fish. We’ve all seen what happens when lax regulations
3rd Annual Cowichan Bay
Spot Prawn Festival
������ ��� �� � ����� �� � ���� ��
NOW BIGGER and BETTER !!!
Ù Free Admission Ù Chef Demo’s Ù
Ù Feast of Prawns Ù Face Painting Ù
Ù Music Ù Colouring Contest Ù
Ù Free Shuttle Service from Bench School Ù
Ù Live Prawn Sales Ù
Ù Craft Stalls Ù Fun for the Whole Family Ù
Ù Seafood Specials ( all week ) Ù
allow resources like raw logs to be
exported - jobs disappear.
Negotiations on CETA have been
going on behind closed doors for nearly
two years now. The NDP has consistently
called on the Conservative government
to make all negotiations transparent and democratic and provide
honest, comprehensive impact assessments.
One of the primary goals for the EU in these negotiations
is access to government procurement markets, specifically at the
provincial and municipal levels.
Procurement is an extremely valuable
policy tool, particularly for economic and
environmental issues, but only if
governments have a choice on where
funds for procurement go.
Under this agreement as it currently stands, governments would
not be able to favour local suppliers and businesses for economic
reasons, nor would they be able to encourage those that are
environmentally-friendly
These are only some of the many significant problems the NDP
is fighting against. It is vital that we preserve the ability of all levels
of government to make progressive decisions in the interest of the
public.
The country cannot prosper without trade, but no trade
agreement should come at the cost of our democracy, health and
environment.
South Cowichan life Page 11