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Monday, July 14, 1997 The right stuff
What comes around goes around. It's a truism that comes back to haunt people and entire jurisdictions far too often.
And this could be exactly what Northern residents are setting themselves up for by catalogue shopping from companies not based in the North.
While many complain that the selection from Northern companies isn't as good as those in the South, the truth is, without a solid and steady investment in Northern companies, selection will never get better.
Do us all a favor and support the North if and when possible. You'll not only support the Northern economy and Northern jobs, but you'll also help lead the way to lower costs and better selection of goods for your children. It only makes sense.
It's hard to fault journalists, politicians or just about anyone else for not taking an interest in something called the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. Not exactly the most exciting title to be sure.
It was barely even mentioned during the election campaign last month, and even the New Democratic Party only learned about MAI half-way through the campaign.
But we all should take an interest as Canadians in general, and Northerners in particular. We should do so because the MAI could spell the end of the our right to dictate the terms on which business is carried out in our own backyards.
For the past year now, Canada and the other three dozen members of the Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation -- basically the rich countries of the world -- have been secretly negotiating a trade treaty that would give transnational corporations unprecedented access to the marketplace.
Among the rights Canada may be forced to hand over, should negotiations not go our way, is the right to set hiring quotas, just as the territorial and federal governments did with BHP Diamonds last year.
Thanks to that right, 62 per cent of BHP's employees at the Lac de Gras mine should be Northerners by 2008. Half should eventually be aboriginal.
Canada is officially opposed to a ban on hiring quotas, but the last draft of the MAI, a version leaked from the Paris negotiating room this spring, contains precisely that.
The NWT's political leadership has yet to make any public statement on MAI. While negotiations are expected to continue for up to another year, there's no reason for further delay. Northerners should make it known to Ottawa that we can't afford to hand over control of our economic fate to corporations that know no national allegiance whatsoever.
Global free trade has its advantages. But without the ability to demand something in return for access to our natural and human resources, we will be at the mercy of those who see us nothing more than a means to a capitalist end.
Sometimes you've got to wonder what planet our politicians are living on. Nunakput MLA Vince Steen says MLAs need an extra $3,000 for legislature-appropriate attire. Yellowknife North MLA Roy Erasmus agrees. Seems neither can get by on $73,000 a year -- not counting living allowances and constituency expenses.
What's next? An ATV/power boat allowance? A fleet of government jets? Getting around the communities is tough these days, you know. And they could probably really use one of those fancy new wireless multi-media notebook computers -- so they can keep up on their correspondence during all those free flights to and from their constituencies.
Hey, what's a few hundred thousand dollars between Northerners anyway?
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