Castlegar – BC Southern Interior MP, Alex Atamanenko is concerned that the proposed Canada-Europeans Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) will be a bad deal for Canada. The agreement, which calls for more open labour mobility between Canada and Europe, will also open up government contracts to European countries.
“I am deeply concerned that we are slowly losing our ability to make decisions in the best interest of Canadians”, said Atamanenko. “Let’s not forget that we have people that are out of work, many of them skilled tradesmen, who will now have to compete with foreigners for jobs. It does not make any sense”.
The NDP MP is also worried that local governments will no longer be able to give preference to local companies who bid on municipal contracts.
“Europe’s most important goal is to get access to our federal, provincial and municipal contract. This is absurd. Ontario is stalling on signing on because of its Green Energy job creation program. They want these jobs to stay in Ontario”.
Atamanenko believes that the current Buy American agreement is just a “warm-up” to CETA.
“We have already opened up our local contract to Americans and now are inviting Europeans to the party. What is wrong with our federal/provincial governments? Why are they not interested in protecting Canadian jobs?” questioned the MP.
The NDP Agriculture critic concluded that he will be taking on this fight in the next few months prior to the summer recess.