Good afternoon. As Alex mentioned, my name is Audrey Cormack and I'm president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

I'm here today because the labour movement here in Alberta -- and right across the country -- has taken a very strong position against the MAI.

At the national level, the Canadian Labour Congress has devoted considerable resources to the campaign.

I'm proud to say that unions have played an important role in bringing the issue of the MAI to the attention of the public.

If it wasn't for all the hard work that has been done by the CLC and organizations like the Council of Canadians over the past few months, most Canadians still wouldn't know about the deal.

And if it wasn't for the groundswell of public opposition, governments and corporations might still be meeting behind closed doors.

But, thanks in large part to people like you, the debate about the MAI is finally moving onto the public stage -- where it should have been in the first place.

So why have unions put so much effort into the campaign against the MAI? Why are we so concerned?

The answer is simple: we're opposed to the MAI because we think it's bad news.

It's bad news for the Canadian economy.

It's bad news for Canadian social programs like Medicare.

And it's bad news for individual working Canadians and there families.

If our federal government and the governments of other industrial countries are successful in ramming the MAI through, many of the things that we cherish as Canadians will be put at risk.

Over the past ten years, we've seen many of our most important public institutions and services weakened by budget cuts and poor-conceived trade deals.

But the situation will get even worse if the MAI signed.

The MAI will give corporations a sweeping new set of rights and it will tie the hands of government when it comes to enacting laws and establishing programs in the public interest.

Under the MAI, some of our most cherished social programs -- like Medicare -- would be open to take-over by huge American companies. Governments could no longer give preferential treatment to Canadian businesses. And we would no longer have the power to demand that companies maintain or create jobs in return for government support.

To put it bluntly, the MAI -- as currently proposed -- gives rights to investors and corporations without asking them to shoulder any counterbalancing obligations.

The international business community would have unlimited access to the Canadian market, but they would not have any corresponding responsibility to create jobs, respect workers rights or protect the environment.

Of course, people from the government and from the business community will argue that the MAI will result in an influx of investment capital. They will argue that this influx of capital will be good for the Canadian economy.

Well, I have one response for the arguments. There was an explosion in capital flows after the Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA. But instead of helping the Canadian economy, these deals hurt it. As a result of the FTA and NAFTA, tens of thousands of jobs were lost.

So I'm not convinced by the arguments in favour of the MAI. The only real beneficiaries of the deal will be large corporations and high-rolling investors who will find it easier to shift investment and jobs out of Canada.

In many ways, the MAI is like the Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA -- but the stakes this time are much higher and the impact on individuals and the economy has the protential for being must worse.

When you get right down to it, the MAI is about giving preferential treatment to the powerful. Well, the powerful don't need this kind of help -- they can already look after themselves.

If government's really want to strengthen the economy and improve people's lives they should turn their attention to helping the powerless. Instead of providing more corporate welfare, our governments should turn their attention to protecting the interests of working Canadians.

So today, I have a challenge for the Alberta government. I challenges them to do the right thing and follow the lead of the B.C. PEI and Yukon governments in formally opposing the MAI.

In the meantime, we at the Alberta Federation of Labour will keep up the fight. With the help of people like you, I am confident that we will put the MAI in it's proper place -- the paper shredder.

Solidarity!