Trump is not the only critic of NAFTA. The Occupy movement and Idle No More were also protesting this rotten system. The difference is, Trump can’t be silenced or arrested for speaking up.
Change the Canada Bank Act back so Canadian banks are again limited to a maximum 25 per cent foreign ownership. Harper’s Conservatives changed it so one person could own a maximum of 20 per cent of a Canadian bank’s shares, with NO geographic restriction. Make them responsible to Canadians.
Revamp forestry tenures and tie them to municipalities, not multinationals who move away as soon as its time to clean up. In fact, make communities responsible for their own sustainability, like in Finland, where forest sustainability produce five times more lumber than in Canada. Then, make Lowes, Home Depot and other foreign-owned retailers buy lumber in the backyard of where they set up shop.
Revamp agriculture and the food industry. We’ve allowed local production capacity to be decimated for the stock market. We should be supplying grocery stores with locally produced food when possible. Evaluate what we can produce locally and sign “fair trade” agreements with countries that need our surplus products and will supply us with what we lack.
Impose foreign ownership taxes on all foreign real estate buyers, not just in Toronto and Vancouver. In fact, all foreign speculation should be made illegal on housing, farmland and food because it restricts families’ ability to live.
Corporations should all be held responsible to Canadians and the communities in which they set up. Apply environmental laws to everyone, shareholders too; no more shifting the rules and regulatory deadlines just so multinationals can have a good fiscal quarter. Canada, as a nation, has to become more important than corporations and their shareholders’ interests.
Christian Howald
Sudbury