Focus on the local...

Do you know how much authority rests with your local government?

Did you know that the decision making authority for many municipalities and even provinces is being given up in through national and international trade agreements?

Much has been written, and many have complained about, transnational trade treaties trumping community rights, autonomy and sovereignty. Much of the criticism levelled towards agreements such as NAFTA and, what could have been, the MAI (multilateral agreement on investment) has to do with the economic hardships that communities will face when they go head to head with multinational corporations and how these agreements give corporations, to some extent, more rights than citizens.

Canada is in the midst of negotiating the 'Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement' (CETA) with the European Union. It looks as though part of the negotiations will include rules about how municipalities can go about procuring services such as waste management, etc. Without getting into specifics, these rules would not allow municipalities to give any preference to local firms - they have strict provisions regarding competitiveness and the rights of foreign companies vis a vis local Canadian ones to bid for, and win, municipal contracts. (For some up to date info and a debate on this topic click here)

Never mind the economics, what about democracy? There are very complex and convoluted arguments on both sides of the debate regarding free trade agreements and the benefits or problems they cause communities and nations, but let me put it this way,

Should our elected representatives be protecting and serving:

1) open market competitive free trade or

2) the citizenry that elected them

Now, I hate to oversimplify a slightly complex issue, but that's kinda what I'm going for here. Are we that confident and sure about free market economics that, by default, this ideology becomes the deciding factor in all cases concerning governance and the future of our communities?

Or would we like our elected officials to retain the power and authority to make decisions about what's best for our communities on a case by case basis? If our governments don't have the kind of authority that agreements like CETA endeavour to remove in order to pursue ongoing economic growth, what exactly are we electing them to do?