The minority Liberal government has tabled a bill aimed at creating an integrated Canadian economy, including knocking down federal barriers to interprovincial trade and identifying major nation-building projects, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday.
The bill is called the “One Canadian Economy” bill, Carney said.
“The first component of the bill eliminates federal barriers to internal trade and labor mobility,” Carney said, adding that these barriers cost the Canadian economy around $200 billion a year.
“That will allow more goods, more services to be transported, sold and bought across our nation without restriction, generating new opportunities for Canadian businesses and lowering costs for Canadian consumers,” he said.
The second component of the bill enables the federal government to identify and expedite nation-building projects, Carney said.
“Right now, to receive approval, major projects must undergo numerous reviews and assessments that often happen sequentially one after another rather than simultaneously all at once. That process is arduous. It takes too long and it’s holding our country back.”
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce said that while eliminating trade barriers will not be enough to entirely offset the damage from a trade war with the U.S., it was a “good start.”
“Businesses have been ready for true, free trade within Canada for a long time. The exceptions to the Canadian Free Trade Agreement limited its effectiveness — eliminating them is an obvious next step,” said Matthew Holmes, chief of public policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Carney pledged to break down internal trade barriers by Canada Day to create one economy — although the time left on the parliamentary calendar suggests the legislation will not gain Royal Assent by the time the House rises for the summer.
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It also comes just days after Carney met with the country’s premiers to discuss the need to build major projects across Canada and fast-track their approval.
Several other provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, have also tabled such legislation to remove interprovincial barriers to the trade of goods across the country.
It comes against a backdrop of U.S. President Donald Trump roiling the country’s economy with stop-and-go tariffs in an escalating trade war — and as Carney has been engaged in behind-the-scenes talks with Trump on trade.
What are internal trade barriers?
Carney’s proposal aims to get rid of federal barriers to interprovincial trade. There are also several trade barriers that are under provincial jurisdiction.
A product made in one Canadian province faces several hurdles before it can be sold in another province. The net of rules that regulate this trade across provincial lines are collectively referred to as interprovincial trade barriers.
It’s not just goods and services. It also applies to a person who works in a regulated profession that needs a licence or accreditation, like a person who works in the trades or as a massage therapist or even a hairdresser. If such a person wants to move to work in another province, they would have to go through the entire process to re-certify.
Most trade barriers have to do with red tape and regulations, which probably means you’d have to pay a higher mark-up on a bottle of wine from another province or your provincial liquor board may not even stock alcohol from provinces it considers a threat to its own industry.
Canada’s uneven transportation policy can also come in the way of trading with other provinces. Different provinces have different maximum weight requirements or safety requirements for trucks, which makes it difficult to transport goods across the country by road.
–with files from Canadian Press
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