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If SNC Lavalin was unable to bid on federal contracts, someone else would have. Job losses are overstated, they amount to mostly HQ jobs and even many of those would be replaced by hires in the new contractors over time. The work still has to be done.

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Amanda Alvaro

@amandaalvaro

Feb 28, 2019

My big takeaway from JWR’s testimony was that on a number of occasions, colleagues/staff implored her to help find a solution to what would be devastating job losses in Canada. I’d be more concerned if my gov’t failed to consider tools to prevent that from happening. #Cdnpoli

Ian Welsh

@iwelsh

Mar 1, 2019

This is a prime example of economic metaphysics: "companies/rich people produce jobs". Which is deranged when dealing with a public contractor.

Ian Welsh

@iwelsh

Mar 1, 2019

If you're concerned about non-Canadian companies getting the bids, disallow foreign companies from bidding. (Probably illegal under the various "trade deals". Woops. But still a government choice which could be made.)

Cinder

@Triquetrea

Replying to

@iwelsh

Increasingly feel like these trade deals bear more than a passing resemblance to pre-WW1 defensive treaties in Europe. They look "safe", but hold too many mutual contradictions to handle any serious challenge without collapsing into total (trade) war.

1:55 PM · Mar 1, 2019Twitter Web App

Replying to

trade deals, rather than mostly being about trade, have been used to restrict domestic policy in ways that are clearly anti-democratic. That was their point, to try and make certain policies irrevocable.

Replying to

Yes, I know the context. Norwegians are intimately familiar with EU arm-twisting in the context of the EEA. "Open your postal services to private corpos or else!" I'm just saying the system seems ripe for someone like Trump, but who doesn't just talk the talk, to unravel it.