NAFTA

The recent controversy during the Democratic campaign battle between Senators Obama and Clinton has now brought renewed focus to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Sadly, this focus has revealed the dark side of NAFTA and a movement in Canada is now growing to have NAFTA re-examined.

At issue is the portion of NAFTA pertaining to energy. Article 605 of NAFTA prohibits Canada from lowering its share of natural gas exports to the USA relative to the most recent 3 year period. No problem you say? Canada has lots of natural gas you say? Think again. The Province of Alberta has only 8 years of proven gas reserves left. Canada as a whole according to the Oil and Gas Journal has proven reserves of 57.9 trillion cubic feet left – enough for 9 years. True, the experts do say that Canada has the potential to unlock many more reserves from the depths of the earth, but the proof of that is in the pudding as they say. Plus, even if these new reserves can be found, getting them to market may prove tricky given the recent squabbles with First Nations groups over the MacKenzie Valley Pipeline to cite just one example. Read more »