Provinces make progress on trade, but patchwork remains

Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to tear down trade barriers between provinces by Canada Day – and with just a day to go until the deadline, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) says there’s still work to be done.

The organization says a lot of progress has been made on removing trade barriers since the trade war began with the United States — and even gave Ontario a top mark. They say the issue is that each province is taking its own approach, and that could end up creating more roadblocks.

“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of movement on the internal trade file, I think more in the last six months than in all the years since the agreement was signed in 2017,” said Vice President of Communications and Legislative Affairs at the CFIB Ryan Mallough.

Earlier this month, the federal government tabled the much anticipated One Canadian Economy bill, aimed at standardizing provincial regulations and easing the flow of labour.

Queen’s Park has also signed multiple memorandum of understandings (MOU) with the leaders of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

All of these agreements have added up to an “A” grade for Ontario in the CFIB’s latest report card on breaking down trade barriers. In the new report, out Monday, Ontario places second, just behind Nova Scotia and just before Manitoba.

The province also took home the only “A+” awarded in one category, for being the first jurisdiction to have no exceptions when it comes to free trade.

And while the CFIB says the focus on tearing down barriers is moving in the right direction, they’re concerned the patchwork system could do more harm than help.

“When we see different provinces have different jurisdictions and regulate things differently, it can create a lot of confusion for business owners, and ultimately frustration, which might lead to them not wanting to expand or take the job at all, and that’s not something we want to see happen,” said Mallough.

While the CFIB says they’re hearing from members of their organization that lifting trade barriers will help business, McMaster political science professor Peter Graefe isn’t so sure.

“It also risks pushing a lot of people out of business because the larger markets you have will probably benefit larger firms. And so for the smaller independent businesses it’s going to mean more competition in their provincial market where they used to have more protection with some of these barriers,” said Graefe.

Does Canada officially have free trade between provinces as of tomorrow? Not quite.

The CFIB says many of the right policies are in place, but it will still take a while for those rules and regulations to be determined and enacted.

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