QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Internal Trade
Interprovincial Trade
February 24, 2026
Minister, you have quite a few roles, including Minister of Internal Trade. On March 21, 2025, during the most recent election campaign, the Prime Minister promised real free trade among the provinces by Canada Day 2025. He said he would gradually remove all federal exceptions restricting internal trade.
Nine months have passed since Canada Day 2025, but nobody has heard a thing about a real interprovincial free trade agreement. Minister, how many federal barriers to internal trade has your government removed, and when?
I’ll give you a very precise answer. All trade barriers have been removed. That was in a bill we passed, Bill C-5. For the first time in a long time, we met with the country’s internal trade ministers, and we came to the table with clean hands. All federal barriers, all of the federal government’s exceptions to the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, have been fully removed.
Did the government show leadership in chairing the first ministers’ conferences to ensure that barriers between the provinces were also being removed? We’re not seeing results yet. We see the Prime Minister making the rounds of world capitals, but not of provincial capitals to provide leadership on matters concerning interprovincial barriers. What’s happening with the interprovincial barriers aspect?
The good news, senator, is that we’re making very good progress. I think that the Prime Minister visits a lot of provincial capitals and meets with premiers more often. Mr. Harper, for example, never held meetings with all of the provincial and territorial premiers, but I’ve attended at least four meetings with Prime Minister Carney, including one a month ago in Ottawa. There was a dinner at Meech Lake the night before, then the meeting the next day. We did indeed discuss the importance of making progress in the provinces and territories. As for trucking issues, all barriers between the provinces and obstacles to the sale of goods have been eliminated. That means we’ve made breakthroughs in two areas for the first time in a long time, though more progress remains to be accomplished.
Thank you, minister.
