Press release - A PPC government will make internal trade liberalization a priority

Dauphin, MANITOBA, September 7, 2021 – A PPC government will make it a priority to liberalize trade and labour mobility between provinces and territories, said the leader of the People’s Party, Maxime Bernier, and will use its constitutional power and political influence to put pressure on provinces to get rid of internal barriers. He made this commitment at a campaign stop in Dauphin, Manitoba.

Statement by Maxime Bernier:

“More than a century and a half after Canada’s founding, Canadians still cannot buy, sell, or work freely within their own country. In order to protect local special interests, provincial governments have adopted all kinds of measures that erect barriers to trade and labour mobility. This is not what the Fathers of Confederation had intended.

A 2016 study concluded that interprovincial trade barriers cost Canadians roughly $100 billion in lost economic opportunities annually. This is equivalent to $7,500 per household every year. Freeing our economy from these interprovincial trade barriers would help families and businesses. It would also increase competition, raise productivity, and unite our country.

A People’s Party government will reassert the authority and leadership of the federal government on internal trade. It will use section 91(2) of the Constitution, which gives Ottawa exclusive power to regulate matters of international and interprovincial trade, to force provinces to apply the principle of mutual recognition where applicable. This principle means that if a worker, product or service meets regulatory standards in one province, then other provinces will trust that they meet their own standards. And finally it will appoint a Minister of Internal Trade whose sole responsibility will be to conduct studies, raise public awareness, counteract the influence of special interests that benefit from interprovincial barriers, and put pressure on provincial governments to get rid of them.”

The People’s Party’s updated platform on internal trade is available here.

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Contact: For more information, please write to: [email protected]