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Letter: Questions for Stephen Hill

Editor:Re: Questions for NDP (Feb. 16 issue of the Grand Forks Gazette)I am responding to Mr. Stephen Hill’s letter in the Feb. 16th Gazette.

Mr. Hill criticized Alex Atamanenko (NDP MP) for criticizing him and a constituent (Mr. Leggett?). He asks the question, “How can constituents be more informed when the current MP doesn’t understand?”

If that is the case, why don’t you explain both the good and bad parts of CETA (Canada European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement)?

I think Alex Atamanenko, our MP, understands only too well the threat of CETA to the delivery of healthcare, our water (read Council of Canadians reports by Maude Barlow), jobs and much more.

With the CETA agreement, our jobs are threatened. Any European corporation can bid on contracts in Canada right down to the municipal level. If it is the lowest bid, but instead is given to a Canadian company, then they can sue the municipality.

Check back to the Feb. 10’s issue of the Advertiser (page 9) for some specific concerns that are fairly detailed and reported on by a legal firm.

NAFTA hasn’t been good either. We just have to listen to our fruit farmers who can’t sell their crops because of flooding our markets from south of the border, destroying the fruit industry in Canada.

The U.S. has repeatedly sued B.C. over our sale of timber products. This B.C. government had two ferries built in Germany that may have cost less money but destroyed our ship-building industry and left skilled workers unemployed.

Our major corporations are being sold off to foreign countries. Now we have few left.

The onslaught is continuing.

If CETA is so good, then, instead of criticizing someone for not explaining it, why don’t you give both sides of the picture?

By the way, Alex Atamanenko is the hardest working and most accessible MP we have ever had. Maybe you, Mr. Hill, should get off the election bandwagon. Respectfully.

 

Harold Funk, Grand Forks