The Security and Prosperity Partnership (The SPP)
is a Trade
Agreement Between Canada, The USA and Mexico
The SPP
means a permanently
declining standard of living for you, your family, your
friends. Ordinary Canadians can expect all of the following:
Lower pay, fewer benefits, longer working
hours and fewer worker rights
Less and much more expensive health care
Delayed retirement and fewer retirement
benefits
Higher incidents of cancer and other
serious illnesses
Higher food and energy costs
Higher crime rates
Fewer freedoms, including the freedom to
disagree with government and corporations
Higher taxes for individuals, while
corporations (and their rich owners) get a free ride
Less say in how Canada is governed
Less
benefit from living in a natural resource rich country, as those
benefits are channeled to corporations and the rich.
Sounds too
outrageous to be true, doesn't it? The many articles linked to by
this website prove the SPP is our worst nightmare.
Lower pay, fewer benefits, longer working hours and fewer
worker rights
The
SPP makes it easy for workers to move around North America. The goal is
to increase the size of the workforce in key areas (such as the tar
sands in Alberta) to drive wages down. Like most Americans, Canadians
will be expected to work longer hours for less. Unions have been under
assault in the US since (at least) the Regan years and this assault
will continue in Canada.
Less and much more expensive health care
Harmonization
with the United States means we are expected to doing things their way.
This includes increased operations of American health insurance and
pharmaceutical industries in Canada. These are companies that oppose
universal health care in the US and will do everything they can to
destroy it in Canada.
Delayed retirement and fewer retirement benefits
This
trend is well underway and will continue. The goal of corporations is
to minimize benefits like retirement plans for employees in order to
"maximize shareholder value".
Higher incidents of cancer and other serious illnesses
In
another "race to the bottom", the plan seeks to lower our food safety,
work place safety
and environmental regulations. The result will be more and nastier
chemicals in our water, our food and our air, and more accidents at
work.
Higher food and energy costs
The SPP encourages and makes it easier to ship our food, water and
energy abroad, leaving Canadians with less. The SPP also means the
ownership of Canadian resources will be (even more) in the hands of
foreign
corporations.
Higher crime rates
Making
it easier for people to move around will make it easier
for criminals
to move around. Ex-cons from the US and Mexico will be drawn to Canada's
generous
welfare system while criminals will be attracted (as pot growers
already have
been) to our more lenient law enforcement.
Fewer freedoms, including the freedom to disagree with
government and corporations
The
trend in the US is away from individual rights and freedoms towards
more government control. As usual, corporations use their
lobbying efforts to make sure they get what
they want (at everyone else's expense).
Higher taxes for individuals while corporations get a free
ride
The
SPP puts the power in the hands of corporations, and they will (as
usual) use this power to force governments to lower the taxes they pay.
You will be required to make up the difference.
Less say in how Canada is governed
Just
as NAFTA did, the SPP puts shackles on Canada that will be difficult
to escape from. As we continue down this path, it will become more and
more difficult to make our own decisions on how our country is run. At
the same time, politicians will become less and less responsive to
Canadians.
Less benefit from living in a natural resource rich country
The SPP channels the benefits and ownership of our resources to (mostly
foreign)
corporations and the rich.
