Sask. favours improved internal trade

REGINA — Canada’s outdated internal trade agreement threatens to stymie Saskatchewan’s economic growth, says federal Industry Minister James Moore.

“Barriers to growth ... are costing Saskatchewan jobs; they’re denying Saskatchewan consumers more choices; they’re preventing Saskatchewan businesses from growing and they’re hurting Canada’s economy,” Moore said.

In a presentation to the Regina and District Chamber of Commerce on Friday, he touted the federal government’s goal to change a country he described as “13 trade islands” into a co-operative national economy.

“The sad reality is that currently, Canadians provide greater trade benefits to foreigners than we do to our own fellow Canadians,” Moore said.

Since they were elected in 2006, the federal Conservatives have ballooned Canada’s international free trade agreements from five partner countries to 43.

The Agreement on Internal Trade, however, hasn’t been updated in two decades. Internal trade barriers are estimated to cost the country $50 billion annually.

Moore rattled off examples of the cost Canada pays for that outdated parchment: Wine that can’t cross provincial borders; dairy creamers whose packaging must change region to region; beer imports stalled by bottle design stipulations.

Saskatchewan has been affected by labour market immobility, energy transmission barriers, and the variation in trucking regulations province to province.

“I think there’s agreement in terms of the government of Canada’s approach and the government of Saskatchewan in seeking as free and open and fair trade as we possibly can,” said provincial Minister of Trade Jeremy Harrison, who attended Moore’s speech and met with him privately on Friday.

Harrison noted Premier Brad Wall was a “catalyst” for Saskatchewan signing the New West Partnership Trade Agreement with British Columbia and Alberta. He said he is confident Moore is aggressively pursuing an updated Agreement on Internal Trade, but added that the portfolio’s slow progress has been frustrating.

“The Agreement on Internal Trade, to not put too fine a point on it, has moved at a glacial pace in terms of any sort of advancement,” he said.

Moore and his deputy minister have been travelling the country discussing the issue with his provincial counterparts and private sector stakeholders in anticipation of a meeting of provincial trade ministers this summer.

The indexing of internal trade barriers and their effects on the economy was listed in the most recent federal budget, but wasn’t allocated money.

“That raises the question: Is this a serious exercise that the government is involved in, or is it a rhetorical exercise?” said Saskatchewan MP Ralph Goodale, who sums up the federal government’s efforts so far as a just whole lot of talk.

Moore said the indexing will come as a result of the summer meeting. Goodale retorted that the delay, coupled with the lack of a budget allocation “doesn’t convey the sense of priority and urgency that I think this issue needs.”

British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec and Nova Scotia have demonstrated the most opposition to loosened internal trade regulations, Moore said.

Now that some of those provinces have new leaders, he said he is hopeful talk around the table this summer will largely be in favour of fresh internal trade agreements.