SPP has added military integration

Emergency Management and Preparedness:

Under this heading, the press release states that SPP minister will work to, "Strengthen emergency management cooperation capacity in the North American region before, during and after disasters."

This comes right on the heels of the announcement that, "Canada and the U.S. have signed an agreement that paves the way for the militaries from either nation to send troops across each other's borders during an emergency, but some are questioning why the Harper government has kept silent on the deal." It was further reported that, "Neither the Canadian government nor the Canadian Forces announced the new agreement, which was signed Feb. 14 in Texas," and that, "The U.S. military's Northern Command, however, publicized the agreement with a statement outlining how its top officer, Gen. Gene Renuart, and Canadian Lt.-Gen. Marc Dumais, head of Canada Command, signed the plan, which allows the military from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a civil emergency."

Soon after this was announced, in the Canadian House of Commons, "the NDP couldn’t get an answer out of Defence Minister Peter MacKay on why his government didn’t release details about a new agreement recently signed with U.S. military," and that:

According to what little is known of the agreement (the actual document hasn’t been made public and no word if it ever will) it will be up to civilian authorities on whether military assistance is needed and whether U.S. troops will cross the border to help in Canada in the event of a terror attack, flu pandemic, earthquake or some other domestic emergency. Same goes if Canadian troops were needed in the U.S. to deal with similar situations.

Calls for Further, Faster Integration:

The day of this press release from the SPP Ministers, the Canadian newspaper the Globe & Mail reported on the previous night’s debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in which they both threatened to leave NAFTA if they didn’t get certain concessions from Canada and Mexico, and the article stated that if NAFTA was torn up, "Canadians would lose their jobs; companies would go out of business, [and] our standard of living would decline." However, it is actually that, "NAFTA has been responsible for growing poverty, the creation of a new underclass called the ‘working poor,’ and the concentration of wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people."

The Globe & Mail article reports that regarding Obama’s comments toward NAFTA, "CTV reported last night that the Obama camp contacted the Canadian embassy to give them a heads-up about the upcoming rhetoric and to reassure them there was no cause for concern." Continuing on the idea of a theoretical end to NAFTA, the article states that, "Our politicians can wait with fingers crossed, hoping that Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, if one of them does become president, won't follow through," or, "we can act, as we have acted in the past, to revitalize the Canada-U.S. relationship and turn crisis into opportunity."

It further states that, "Since 1993, when Jean Chrétien and Bill Clinton ratified NAFTA, Canadian prime ministers have largely ignored issues of economic integration," which is, of course, an obvious lie. However, it does give mention to, "Incremental efforts at harmonizing regulatory regimes - the once-much-vaunted Security and Prosperity Partnership - have been quietly shelved, left to the bureaucrats to work on, unperturbed by deadlines." So the problem, according to the Globe and Mail, is that the process of integration is not happening fast enough.

The article then went on to attack those who have attacked the North American Union, stating, "the American economy deteriorated and manufacturing jobs disappeared, prompting xenophobic fears over immigration and trade. Anti-trade zealots such as CNN's Lou Dobbs promoted paranoia. Their poisonous message has filtered throughout the industrial heartland of the United States." In explaining a solution to this "crisis", the article states, "The challenge today is the same; the answer is the same. Prime Minister Stephen Harper should propose a second round of Canada-U.S. trade negotiations."