Slow progress on internal trade
When Canada’s premiers got together at their annual summer meeting of the Council of the Federation a few weeks ago, a lot of attention was given to the agreement to increase the personal exemption limit on alcohol crossing provincial borders.
Internal trade in Canada has virtually become synonymous with trade in alcohol. But for small businesses, it is much more than that. The most substantive announcement to come out of the premier’s meeting was the release of a new work plan to tackle the kinds of regulatory headaches that make it hard for businesses to operate in other provinces and territories.
The concept of interprovincial trade barriers really is something people often struggle to digest. After all, there aren’t any hard borders within Canada with customs officers applying duties and tariffs. Yet, this doesn’t mean barriers don’t exist.
The differing rules and regulations between provinces take time and money, making it either uncompetitive to trade or increasing costs for consumers. For instance, there are different rules for oversized loads, different occupational health and safety regulations, and the need to register a business in a province in order to operate there. These may seem minor for some, but each requires compliance or else those businesses can find themselves facing fines and delays.
With these types of barriers all too common for small businesses in Canada, and given the uncertainty surrounding the future of trade with the United States, it makes good economic and business sense for provinces to improve market access across the country. This is especially true given the small size of the Newfoundland and Labrador economy.
Currently, many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, for various reasons, do not have the disposable income they once did, which has resulted in less revenues for small businesses. They need access to the opportunities that lower barriers to internal trade would present.
It is unfortunate Newfoundland and Labrador, according to media reports, was a holdout on the agreement to increase the personal exemption limit on alcohol. The premier and the minister of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation should be front and centre on the movement to remove internal trade barriers. They now have an opportunity to work with the prime minister and the newly appointed minister of Intergovernmental and Northern Affairs and Internal Trade to make the significant advancements that are sorely needed. All too often, in these situations, Newfoundland and Labrador is a policy-taker rather than a policy-maker.
Since the announcement of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement last year, progress on eliminating internal barriers has been slow, to say the least. There is promise that the new work plan to tackle the regulatory and administrative red tape between provinces on a national scale will improve access to other areas of the country for businesses. Small- and mediumsized businesses would stand to benefit, which would bode well for the economic future of Newfoundland and Labrador. Vaughn Hammond Director of provincial affairs Canadian Federation of Independent Business in Newfoundland and Labrador