TPP Signing Sells Out Canadian Jobs

OTTAWA — With scarce public consultations and no economic impact assessments completed, Liberal Foreign Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland signed onto Stephen Harper’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement today in New Zealand. In the face of today’s signing, Freeland maintains the Liberal government may not actually stand behind their signature.

“Why would you sign something you don't know the details of and may not even agree with?” asked NDP Foreign Trade critic Tracey Ramsey (Essex). “No one in their right mind would sign a mortgage without knowing the interest rate, yet that's essentially what the Minister is doing with this bad deal.”

Despite the Minister’s claim that today’s signing is purely ceremonial, Ramsey continues to highlight that the impacts this agreement will have on Canadian jobs is anything but trivial. Studies from outside sources confirm that close to 60,000 Canadian jobs will be at stake, including 20,000 family-supporting, middle-class automotive sector jobs.

“The government hasn’t done an economic impact study and the Minister hasn’t consulted the public, but she’s signing the agreement anyways,” added Ramsey. “What’s at stake are good-paying Canadian jobs and I refuse to sit idly by while the Minster fast-tracks their pink slips.”