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http://www.canada.com/cityguides/halifa ... fa&k=96951


Font: * * * * To some, it is a "corporate coup d'etat," a conspiracy by big business to turn Canada into the 51st state by stealth. Others see it as a plot to destroy the U.S. by forcing it into a North American union with "socialist Canada" and "corrupt Mexico."

Its defenders hail it as a bold, visionary plan, the only way to give the three neighbours a fighting chance against the twin threats of global terrorism and robust economic rivals such as China.

Skeptics argue it's nothing but an eye-glazing bureaucratic boondoggle, with all the sex appeal of the phone book.

It is the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a sprawling effort to forge closer ties among the three nations in everything from anti-terrorism measures, to energy strategies, to food-safety and pesticide rules.

Launched two years ago by then-prime minister Paul Martin, President George W. Bush and his Mexican counterpart Vicente Fox at the so-called Three Amigos summit in Waco, Texas, the SPP grew out of concerns that security crackdowns would cripple cross-border trade.

With juggernauts such as China and India looming on the horizon, the three countries agreed they had to act fast to stay competitive. Now the SPP has grown into a mind-boggling array of some 300 initiatives, involving 19 teams of bureaucrats from all three countries.

Its stated mission is "to keep our borders closed to terrorism yet open to trade" by fostering "greater co-operation and information-sharing" in security protocols and economic areas such as product safety.

Little-known in Canada, the accord, if fully implemented, could affect almost every aspect of Canadian life, from what drugs you can access, to whether you can board a plane and even what ingredients go into your morning cornflakes.

While you may not have heard of the SPP, you may have heard about some of the controversies it has sparked: Canada's adoption of a no-fly list; negotiations to lower Canada's pesticide standards to U.S. levels; or fears the deal will lead to bulk-water exports.

Liberal party leader Stephane Dion charged Friday that, "under the veil of secrecy," Harper has let the Americans run roughshod over Canada, covertly using the SPP to impose a U.S. agenda on Canada. That's not what the Liberals intended when they signed the deal, which was meant to give Canada a stronger voice in Washington, not turn it into a pale "imitation" of the U.S., he says.

Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians says it is big business that is calling the shots, pushing aggressively for the harmonization -- and downgrading -- of everything from security norms to food standards, in a move that will lead to the "integration by stealth" of the three nations.

"Canadians would be shocked" if they knew the true scope of the SPP, says Barlow, whose Ottawa-based organization says it represents about 100,000 members.

Fringe groups such as the Canadian Action Party and the Minutemen in the U.S. go further, arguing the SPP is a plot to sweep all three nations into a North American union.

"Where are they getting this stuff?" says Thomas d'Aquino, head of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which helped launch the SPP.

"This is a very nitty-gritty, workaday initiative" to make trade safer and more efficient through such steps as expanding border crossings and information-sharing programs on plant and animal safety, he says.

Other SPP projects are no-brainers, such as plans to co-operate in fighting West Nile virus and flu pandemics.

As for fears of a North American union, "anyone who believes that is smoking something," says d'Aquino.

This weekend, the debate hits the headlines across the nation as the three heads of state and their advisers converge on Montebello, Que., 60 kilometres east of Ottawa, for the SPP's third annual summit.

Thousands of protesters are also expected to descend on the area, hoping to confront the "Three Banditos" about a deal they say is a secretive sellout to the cowboy capitalism and militarism of the superpower to Canada's south.

The road toward the SPP began with the shutdown of the Canada-U.S. border after the terrorist attacks on the U.S.

"It was a disaster for trade," recalls d'Aquino. "Suddenly, trucks which could whisk through the border in four to six minutes before 9/11 could take 18 hours."

Even now, security checks can slow border crossings to as long as three hours, he says, and businesses on both sides of the border live in fear of another emergency shutdown.

Cross-border trade is worth more than $1 billion a day and accounts for about 80 per cent of Canada's total exports. Border delays since 2001 have cost at least $14 billion to both economies, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Within weeks of the terrorist attacks, d'Aquino's group and the Liberal government of the day were pressing Washington to do something; by December, the two countries had hammered out the so-called Smart Border Declaration, a 30-point program to co-ordinate and streamline border security.

With border security suddenly at the top of the U.S. agenda, business and policy leaders on both sides of the 49th parallel saw a golden opportunity to hash out a host of other trade-related issues, such as energy supplies and regulatory differences that stop some goods at the border.

By 2005, the SPP was up and running. Building on the Smart Border deal, it had a sprawling agenda of roughly 300 projects running the gamut from joint security exercises to the study of migratory species.

"We always hoped from the outset we could broaden it beyond security," says Roland Paris, a University of Ottawa professor who worked as an adviser in the Privy Council Office when the SPP was launched. He adds that the SPP's architects hoped the "regular high-level meetings" would help "overcome bureaucratic inertia."

But they also helped big business and its government allies bypass both the public and Parliament to push through a host of controversial changes without debate or scrutiny, critics charge. They say the accord has enshrined and fast-tracked a longstanding effort to quietly harmonize Canadian programs with those of the U.S. in everything from military policy to food and drug standards.