PREMIERS STAKE FREE-TRADE CLAIM, STILL PANNING FOR GOLD
To paraphrase Robert Service, there are strange things done in the midnight sun by the premiers who moil for gold.
And, boy, did they moil and moil this week at the annual premiers’ conference in the Yukon. But they never struck gold.
They might have scratched the surface with an agreement-in-principle on a new interprovincial trade deal — or, as the premiers loftily named it, a Canadian Free Trade Agreement.
“The CFTA is a groundbreaking agreement that will support their vision for promoting trade, investment and labour mobility across provincial and territorial boundaries,” declared a Council of the Federation news release.
However, it’s not groundbreaking yet because it’s not a deal yet.
The premiers still have to work out details as to how an agreement would erase barriers to trade. Currently, each province limits trade by dictating, for example, what blend of gasoline can be sold at home or what size tires are allowed on commercial trucks. And when it comes to moving alcohol from one province to another there is a whole steeplechase of barriers.
In fact, the rules on the interprovincial trade in booze are such a nightmare that the premiers announced they will establish “a working group on alcoholic beverages, which will explore opportunities to improve trade in beer, wine and spirits across Canada.”
If you like your alcoholic beverages, that’s worth popping a bottle — but keep in mind this is just the premiers setting up a working group to “explore opportunities.”
Just look at the “freer” trade in wine announced Friday by the premiers of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. They are allowing their own citizens to buy wine online, but only from each other’s provincially-run liquor boards.
“We have not freed the grapes completely but they are freer,” said B.C. Premier Christy Clark, who seemed to have a monopoly on colourful turns of phrase at the conference.
On the other hand, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley seemed uncharacteristically subdued. Perhaps because in conference hallway chatter she was being painted as something of a onewoman barrier to free trade.
Notley reportedly was digging in her heels over the issue of government procurement contracts. If alcohol is the sexy item in the free-trade boudoir, procurement contracts are the flannel pyjamas.
Notley, according to the chatter, wanted Alberta companies to have preferential treatment when bidding on Alberta government contracts. This was her way of making sure money from her government’s $34-billion worth of infrastructure over five years will remain in Alberta.
But other provinces, notably B.C. and Saskatchewan who, along with Alberta, are part of the New West trade partnership, complained. And they threatened retaliation against Alberta companies bidding for government contracts in B.C. and Saskatchewan. And then the economically struggling Atlantic Provinces complained about Alberta’s protectionism, too.
This was fascinating stuff. Notley, who emerged as the Dudley Do-Right of last year’s premiers’ conference by getting them to sign on to a Canadian Energy Strategy, had become the Snidely Whiplash of this year’s meeting.
When asked about the reported impasse during a break in talks, Notley danced around the issue.
“It’s really important that we open up trade across the country,” said Notley. “But it is also important to ensure that where there is a need for a provincial government to engage intentionally in, for instance, economic stimulus or regional development, those kinds of things, that they’re able to do that.”
In other words, provinces hit by hard economic times should be able to be a little protectionist, if necessary, to protect jobs and companies.
At the end of the day, the premiers sort of agreed with Notley. Nothing was written down for us to peruse but they suggested companies in B.C., Saskatchewan and the Atlantic Provinces would be able to freely bid on Alberta government contracts and vice versa. But there might be some restrictions on companies based in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec — though those provinces, amazingly enough, wouldn’t retaliate against Alberta.
But this is all up in the air, part of an unwritten agreement-inprinciple.
The premiers have staked a claim to free trade. But we won’t know for months if they will eventually strike gold.