Letter to the Editor

I would like to protest the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPPA) that the Harper Government is trying to slide into law without public consultation or transparency.

In less than one week, Canada could be committing to the most sweeping trade deal in a generation without a single debate or vote. If it passes, it will pave the way for China’s massive State Owned enterprises to spend billions of dollars to buy-out Canada’s natural resource companies.

Under FIPA, China’s companies can sue Canadian governments, federal, provincial or municipal, in secret tribunals outside the Canadian court system if those governments do anything that would limit the companies’ profits in Canada.

The FIPA would tie our hands for 31 years, making it possible for China’s companies to bring about billion-dollar lawsuits. Canada has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on penalties from lawsuits launched under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and right now Belgium is facing a $3 billion suit from one of China’s companies because of a similar foreign investor agreement. Why would Harper lock us into this extreme deal when NAFTA is already in place and why is it so secretive? Canadians have a right to have a say in the decisions that will shape our lives, speak up.

Lanna van der Velden,

Cranbrook

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