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Deep Integration

Deep Integration 101

Deep Integration is a program of North American economic and political integration, whereby Canada—and more recently, Mexico—are being absorbed into a “fortress North America” that will be dominated by the U.S. and big business. The integration project began back in the mid-1980s with the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. In the 1990s, with the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Deep Integration program was expanded to include Mexico. The governments of the three countries, their corporate elites, and right wing academics are pushing this agenda forward. In the post 9-11 world, Canada, the U.S., and Mexico have massively ramped up this process with a host of bi-lateral and tri-lateral agreements. All these agreements entail a loss of Canadian independence, and ever closer integration of the regulations and policies of the three partner countries. At present, for example, Canada, the U.S., and Mexico are rapidly harmonizing hundreds of rules and regulations through the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).

One of the most frightening aspects of these agreements is the degree to which the public has been increasingly excluded from the process. With the SPP, the Canadian government has taken part in numerous secretive meetings, away from the public and the media, and has not allowed any debate on the matter in Parliament. In contrast, through the SPP’s North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), the corporate elite have been given not only privileged access to the process, but also the ability to set the agenda itself.

It is not hard to see where this process is going: if present trends continue, in a few years the Canada we all know and love will disappear. Unless we can get the government to change course, it is just a matter of time until Canada is dissolved into a North American Union, which will be dominated by the corporate elite and the U.S. government. Council members are adamantly opposed to this complete sell-out of Canadian independence, and have been working hard for years to stop the Deep Integration process.