Freeland calls on opposition to give unanimous consent on internal trade bill, says legislation coming ‘very, very soon’

Internal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland talks about the speed in which the federal government will be able 'to build one Canadian economy, not 13.'

Internal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland says she hopes members of Parliament from all parties will unanimously sign on to her government’s promised soon-to-be-tabled bill to eliminate federal interprovincial trade barriers.

Throughout the election campaign, Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged several times to eliminate interprovincial trade barriers by Canada Day, while his platform promises only to table the necessary legislation by the July 1 deadline.

There are just two and a half weeks left before the House rises for the summer break. Freeland, when asked whether that internal trade legislation will be tabled during this sitting, said it will be introduced “very, very soon.”

“Let me also say I would like to pass this legislation really, really quickly,” Freeland said, in an interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Monday. “Now is a critical moment. Now is not a time when Canada can afford to dither.”

“I want to take this opportunity to say to all the other members of the House of Commons, I would love this legislation to pass through unanimous consent,” Freeland also said. “This is something that we can all get behind. It should not be controversial.”

Freeland was in Saskatoon, Sask. for a highly anticipated in-person meeting between Carney and Canada’s premiers, during which internal trade was among the top agenda issues.

When pressed on the timeline to table a bill that would remove all the federal barriers to interprovincial trade — with other hurdles under provincial jurisdiction — Freeland said she didn’t want to pre-empt an announcement from the prime minister.

“What I can say is the federal government is absolutely committed to doing everything in our power, as fast as we can, to build one Canadian economy, not 13,” she said. “Obviously, we don’t have a majority in the House of Commons, so we can’t guarantee what will happen there, but what I can tell you is we are going to table legislation very quickly, and the federal government will be acting unilaterally to lift all remaining federal barriers to internal trade.”

The premiers, Freeland said, “unanimously” support eliminating internal trade barriers.

Some provinces have been taking action to remove some internal trade barriers themselves by signing agreements and memorandums of understanding to do so. None of the agreements are binding.

Despite this, several sticking points remain in place and many interprovincial trade barriers continue to exist, such as geographic restrictions on the sale of certain goods, regulatory and policy differences across jurisdictions, and hurdles to labour mobility.

Pressed several times by Kapelos, Freeland conceded in her interview there are “different estimates” from economists on how much a Canada-wide free-trade deal would add to the economy.

“For me, at the end of the day, we don’t know for sure, but everyone is agreed this is going to be a good thing,” Freeland said, pointing to a roundtable she held with leading economists last week. “It will make our economy stronger. It will make us richer at a time when Canadian businesses are struggling to export their goods to the U.S.”

According to a 2019 study from the International Monetary Fund, removing all internal trade barriers in Canada, both federal and provincial, could add $200 billion to the economy — a number the federal government has been touting as motivation to remove said interprovincial trade obstacles.

Federal politicians should ‘put partisan stripes aside’: Houston

Coming out of the first ministers’ meeting on Monday, several premiers categorized the discussion as constructive. Ontario Premier Doug Ford called it the best meeting of the premiers in a decade.

Also in an interview for CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos on Monday, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said it was a “really positive meeting.”

“I mean, everybody is on the same page. We have to grow our economy,” Houston said, describing the Carney government’s focus on the economy as “night and day” from the previous Liberal regime.

“There’s tons of opportunity for this country, and we feel like as premiers, we have an adult who wants to listen to us and work with us,” Houston also said. “So, it’s a good feeling.”

Asked how realistic he thinks it is that interprovincial trade barriers fully come down, Houston said that while all the obstacles may not come down at once, there’s “good momentum” in getting “some done, and then most done.”

In April, Houston’s government announced that Ontario and Prince Edward Island are working with Nova Scotia to introduce reciprocal legislation with the aim of eliminating internal trade barriers.

“I’m focused on what’s best for Nova Scotia and what’s best for Canada,” Houston told Kapelos. “And I hope that when legislation comes before the House of Commons, that all members will put political partisan stripes aside and focus on Canadians.

“That’s certainly what I’m doing, and that’s what I would encourage elected officials to do across the board,” he added.