QUEBEC (CP) - The provinces will play a greater role while Ottawa negotiates future international trade deals, federal Labour Minister Claudette Bradshaw said Friday.
Provincial labour departments, for instance, weren't actively consulted while Ottawa worked out previous trade deals, Bradshaw said after a federal-provincial meeting. But that will change with future accords like the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, a hemispheric trade agreement targeted for 2005.
"My department hadn't really worked with the provinces and the labour ministers," Bradshaw said.
"We will work much more closely with them.
"They will know what we have in our accords, they will know where we're starting from and they will be able to come and work with us."
A spokesman for International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew said the provinces have always been consulted during trade negotiations that affect their constitutional jurisdictions.
However, Pettigrew has made it a higher priority, said spokesman Sebastien Theberge.
"We are more and more transparent," Theberge said.
"We have focused on this a lot over the last four years. It's federal-provincial co-operation the way it should be."
Pettigrew will meet provincial delegates in Montreal on Feb. 7 to discuss a variety of bilateral and multilateral trade issues, Theberge said.
Quebec's labour minister said he's eager to offer his input on the hemispheric free trade deal.
"'We are part of the process because we will eventually be responsible for its application," said Jean Rochon.
"The rights that workers have gained must not be affected by international trade agreements.
"On the contrary, these agreements must allow an improvement in working conditions. We have a role to play there."
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