..regarding ceta, here's an exert of an email exchange i had with my mla back in aug/2011
http://rabble.ca/comment/1272647#comment-1272647
Greetings Shane Simpson:
I have been following the Ceta negotiations. As you may know CUPE sent a delegation to Europe recently to learn what it could. One of the CUPE delegate sent out a daily journal to which i refer to below. My question to you Shane..Is there anything preventing any provincial government from saying no our province will not agree to CETA?
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Hi Paul,
Thanks for your email. While this is not directly my file I do know a bit about the issue. You are correct, there are aspects of CETA that deal directly with provincial jurisdiction and authority. On those matters it appears the BC Liberals are concurring with Prime Minister Harper. As the New Democrat Opposition we have taken the position that this agreement is not beneficial to the interests of British Columbians and should we form government before the deals are committed to, we will not be supportive. We will also debate this issue in the Legislature should we get the opportunity.
I hope that’s helpful to you. Thanks again for the email.
Regards,
Shane
Shane Simpson MLA Vancouver-Hastings
t: 604-775-2277 | f: 604-775-2352 | www.shanesimpson.ca
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g'day shane:
thanks for the quick response. and appreciate the ndp position. does this mean that the provincial government has the authority to say no to this deal thus preventing the negotiations from moving forward? this is an important question don't you think?
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An important but hard question to answer. While the provinces can protect some issues it may be possible for creative negotiators to get around that. Hard to say without more information. But we could make it tougher no doubt.
Regards,
Shane
Shane Simpson MLA Vancouver-Hastings