Who Is Responsible?

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Profit Before Responsibility

The World Trade Organization, a collection of treaties with dubious interpretations, an international rule making body responsible to no-one, has forced nations to hand over the unrestricted ability of international corporations to maximize profits at the expense of environmental sustainability, consumer safety, worker safety, public health, human rights and freedom of labor. All the fist pounding, down home, fundamental values that politicians of every stripe promise to protect and maintain at every election.

Who is responsible for allowing us to be flushed down the economic drain Canada is being pushed into? Right now, our largest trading partner, the US, are under enormous pressure to keep their fiscal heads above water, de-valuating their own dollar in order to save what remains of their own home industrial economy afloat.

We all have to take some responsibility for getting us to the verge of trade deficit and bankruptcy. We all in some fashion allowed the ‘Walmarts’ to dictate our shopping habits, not realizing that there were no longer any controls on quality and safety. We allowed it to happen and still continue to give over product standards to foreign companies in far off lands every time we shop.

Canada doesn't have inspections of products at the ports and relies almost exclusively on the US to inspect imports. Less than 4% of imported goods are inspected for safety standards. Many of the products on the shelves are given CSA approval based on the prototype sample submitted before the product is even ordered. What happens during production in some non-inspected subcontractor factory in China remains unknown until a problem arises during use.

• Like lead paint on toys,
• thin walled copper pipe,
• light fixtures that catch fire,
• baby cribs that fall down,
• car tires that come apart.

The list is near endless and it is almost always because the companies who order the products are demanding lower prices and in order to comply, standards have to go out the window.

That is why the ‘Mattels’ of the world have moved their manufacturing to China, to avoid production standards. Not only is labor dirt cheap, there is no environmental protection code. There is virtually no worker safety or labor laws to meet. There are virtually no human rights codes to address.

Since the early 90s, almost 3 trillion dollars have been invested in developing China's manufacturing base. 2/3 of that at the expense of US and Canadian manufacturing. Too many companies, who built their business through North American know-how and technology and were dependent on Canadian and US workers sweat, have just packed up and left for China and other cheap labor facilities.

Many of these corporations accepted development handouts from the federal government along with reduced taxes, only to take their profits and run. They built loyal customers in Canada but have now turned their backs on that loyalty, abandoned their ‘Roots’ and are demanding more profit while delivering less, hoping the consumer remains impotent.

Who of us hasn't opted to buy the cheaper screws from Canadian Tire or Home Depot only to find they break when under stress. It is only a screw, but it is an unsafe screw. If it is used to hold a stair in place and it breaks, someone's safety is compromised. In construction, you have to build above minimum code; not because the code is insufficient, mostly, you just can't trust the product.
 

Isn't it time to demand better!

Refuse to buy the crap from those who have no regard to Canada or Canadians.

Refuse to buy from companies who have no respect towards your child's safety.

Refuse to buy from those who will line their corporate pockets on the backs of cheap labor.

Refuse to buy from those who would profit while degrading the environment.

Our governments are powerless to do anything substantial. It is basically up to Canadian individuals to fight back with the only tool we have at our disposal,
---the one thing they all cherish, our dollars.

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