We need a commitment to widen the net in trade discussions

Let me tell you about a pressure welder in P.E.I. who wants to work in Alberta, and why it’s a symptom of what’s wrong in Canada’s internal trade.

Pressure welders are skilled tradespeople who put together tanks and other vessels that will be under pressure when used. The might be used for storing liquid natural gas, or piping steam in a refinery, or storing hazardous chemicals in an industrial facility.

Training for pressure welders is similar across the country. You would think, therefore, that it wouldn’t be difficult for a welder in P.E.I. to get work in Alberta. You’d be wrong.

First, welders with an Alberta Pressure B permit enjoy preferential hiring. Everyone else must submit letters from their employers stating that they have 6,750 hours of welding experience, then write a test in Edmonton or Calgary.

So complex is the regulatory framework that our union’s Alberta training centre had to publish a two-page flow chart to help potential welders ensure they had the permits to apply for work they were already qualified to do.

Such is the need for skilled tradespeople in Alberta that our union — the leading supplier of Boilermakers to Canadian industry — will pay $110 per day to help with the accommodation expenses of the applicants. However, the applicant must still pay another $172 to the Alberta Boilers Safety Association for what is called a “reciprocal fee.”

This is the kind of regulatory knot that the provinces and the federal government must try to untangle when they meet in Charlottetown this week to discuss interprovincial trade.

A long-awaited discussion paper has finally been issued, just in time for the meeting, by Industry Canada. The paper outlines two possible alternatives for action: fix and harmonize the current regulations, or reject them altogether and disallow any kind of trade barrier unless it’s exempted from the new internal trade agreement that the governments hope will result from the talks.

There are very good reasons for provincial regulations governing our trade. After all, projects in our industry must proceed with an acute level of safety consciousness and concern. We wouldn’t want a tank of pressurized natural gas to spring a leak. Dismantling every trade barrier with a stroke of the pen might not be the way to proceed in this case.

This is why we need more people at the table in these discussions about interprovincial trade. Plenipotentiaries from each level of government undoubtedly have the best interests of their constituents at heart. But when we get down to the brass tacks, a lot more people need to be involved to cut through the regulatory thorns.

The Industry Canada discussion paper mentions eliminating the differences in provincial apprenticeship programs, but doing so won’t help our P.E.I. welder who wants work that requires a Pressure B certificate in Alberta. Don’t get me wrong: harmonizing apprenticeship programs would a great start. But there are layers and layers of regulatory barriers in addition to apprenticeship differences.

Examining and harmonizing regulations will take time, but eliminating or ignoring them altogether is not the answer. So how do we get at the guts of the problems affecting skilled trades like our own?

The answer is to involve the people who use the tools. In our industry, there is a tradition of co-operation between industry and unions in ironing out problems which crop up due to procedural or methodological snags. In fact, we regularly meet with the companies who employ our members in order to find ways to smooth the path for the work we undertake. When regulations come into play, we invite government to the table as well.

This tripartite model has worked extremely well in our industry and could be a model for the kind of round-table discussions we need to deal with the nitty gritty of dismantling Canada’s internal trade barriers.

I call upon the government officials meeting in Charlottetown this week to widen the net in trade discussions. Interprovincial trade restraints affect everyone, not just captains of industry and government ministers. Let’s see a plan to involve everyone in cutting trade barriers.