Documents found
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153.More information
The Canada — United States Free Trade Agreement reflects differences in the objectives of each party in the area of natural resources trade. As most of this trade was in one direction only, from Canada to the United States, the former was looking for a better access to the American market while the latter wanted security of access to the resources themselves.Various provisions of the Agreement on the progressive abolition of tariffs, the prohibition against specific taxes, duties and charges on energy exports, the quasi-abolition of import or export restrictions, the safeguard of each party's interests against protectionist measures adopted by the other party through a dispute resolution mechanism or the sharing of energy supplies in shortage situations are such that these objectives should be attained.Moreover, although the Agreement does contain some insufficiencies and some problems exist as to its implementation, it should be beneficial for both parties in their trading of natural resources. Indeed, the agreement should increase the profitability of natural resource businesses, provide for a better competitive edge on world markets, increase employment in the area, and provide a better climate for investments.Existing laws and policies are in general grandfathered. However, the role of some administrative agencies and especially that of the National Energy Board will have to be changed in order for it to take into account the provisions of the Agreement.Some have, on both sides of the boundary, objected to the provisions of the Agreement. But, in a situation where the Agreement was the alternative to protectionism, it should be profitable to both countries with regards to access to natural resources and access to the markets for these natural resources.
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159.More information
No more than any other geographical region has East Asia ever really been a priority in the Canadian foreign policy. The rapid economic growth of this sub-continent has stirred Canadian interest in East Asia. This interest, expressed mainly in terms of the economy - commerce and investments - meets with numerous barriers, some specific to the region, others related to the constraints resulting from the international economic competition. In a y et more obvious way, the diplomacy of the government in Ottawa meets with internal obstacles particular to the Canadian society which, by tradition and inclination, usually has a tendency to turn more towards the Atlantic ocean. The objective of this study is therefore to identify those constraints while at the same time underlining the new efforts deployed by the Federal government to build up an increased interest in that region. This paper tries also to pinpoint the way in which the Asian policy is incapable of elaborating corrective measures to the problems still present to-day, but which have long been well indentified.
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160.More information
Taking Harry W. Arthurs' recent arguments about the demise of industrial citizenship in Canada, the authors explore the heuristic position that big companies and the public sector are in fact a privileged site for the exercise of industrial citizenship because of their strong union presence, long history of collective bargaining, and experience with and sensitivity to human resource management. The authors present some initial research on this topic, concerning Air Canada, conducted by a SSHRC-funded team of jurists and labour sociologists. Specifically, the authors performed a case law and content analysis of Air Canada's outsourcing of heavy aircraft maintenance to Aveos in 2007. In 2012, when Aveos filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations, Air Canada began outsourcing some of its aircraft maintenance work overseas. The authors' longitudinal analysis of Air Canada as an employer since its privatization in 1988 traces a transformation from the company's initial public service approach to a purely economic approach of maximizing profit. From the perspective of legal pluralism and of the interpretive sociology of law, the authors focus on the interaction between the empirical legal orders involved, whether for Air Canada, the union, the external creditors, the subcontractor or the laid-off employees themselves, who came together in an informal association to defend their rights. This analysis reveals how some of these parties circumvented the law, assisted by the federal or provincial government. This supports the hypothesis that the impact of economics on law is rarely direct or immediate, and is generally subject to political mediation. Ultimately, the authors conclude that the Aveos case does indeed validate Harry W. Arthurs' position on the demise of industrial citizenship, rather than the contrary, as was put forth as a heuristic exercise. That said, before a general statement about such a matter can be adopted, further comparison with the history of other large companies is needed, as well as further analysis of Air Canada's attitude toward the employees who have remained.