QUESTION PERIOD — Industry
Interprovincial Trade
April 28, 2026
Government leader, it has been three months since Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum and now a full year that he has been Prime Minister, yet one of the most persistent barriers to Canada’s productivity and economic success is interprovincial trade restrictions, which remain largely unaddressed.
Despite your government’s claim in Davos that federal regulatory barriers have been removed, Canada still does not operate as a truly integrated market.
While your government enthusiastically pursues diversification and more liberalized trade with other nations in the world, which is a very good thing, right here in Canada, interprovincial trade is still fully tariffed and non-competitive.
At what point will the Prime Minister sit down with the premiers and tell them to become serious about this very serious issue?
The Prime Minister, just yesterday, said that he has already had 11 meetings with the premiers of all provinces and territories.
I vividly remember that when Minister LeBlanc was here, you or Senator Carignan asked a question concerning interprovincial barriers. As far as the federal government is concerned, the answer was that all federal barriers on commerce between provinces had been removed.
At this time, there are still issues with provincial jurisdiction, but as far as the federal government is concerned, not only did the Prime Minister make that commitment, but he acted to ensure that the commitment was implemented.
Government leader, the real problems right now are interprovincial trade barriers and tariffs. MOUs, press conferences, coming to the Senate, going to committees and making announcements are all wonderful, but Canadians deserve concrete results and action.
It is great that we are trying to diversify our international trading arrangements, but we have to get premiers to do more than just talk about it. Leadership has to come from Ottawa. According to the International Monetary Fund, a 7% GDP boost would happen if we eliminated interprovincial trade barriers tomorrow morning. What steps —
Thank you, Senator Housakos.
I’m happy that you see the importance of trade diversification because, last week, Senator Batters argued that the Prime Minister was travelling around the world for almost nothing, if I remember correctly. Now that you recognize that, I hope that Senator Batters will agree with you, Senator Housakos, in recognizing that trade diversification has a positive impact on the Canadian economy.
