Now that we’re talking trade, it works be a good time to address Canada’s internal trade barriers:
“Let’s sit down and come up with a list, because everyone wants to protect something – no matter if it’s the dairy cow in Newfoundland, or the wine in B.C., or ourselves – everyone’s guilty,” he added.
Consumers are confronted by these roadblocks every day. A craft brewery in Quebec can’t sell its beer directly to a nearby restaurant in Ottawa. An engineer in New Brunswick has to get licensed in neighbouring Nova Scotia before practising there. A truck driver in British Columbia can only drive certain truck configurations at night but must do so during the day in Alberta – leaving a narrower time frame to make an interprovincial trek.
Taken together, these barriers are constraining Canada’s economic potential. Research shows that tearing them down would give the economy a sizable boost – perhaps enough to offset the hit from steep U.S. tariffs.
This would be sick. Especially for high-quality local foods.