QUESTION PERIOD — Industry
Interprovincial Trade
October 1, 2026
Government leader, earlier this year, the Prime Minister promised Canadians free trade by Canada Day and called the elimination of international trade barriers a top priority of his government. He said he would not rest until it was done.
He himself acknowledged that these barriers cost Canadians roughly $200 billion a year. Canada Day came and went; a second Canada Day came and went. I remind colleagues that Canada Day is on July 1.
Can you tell the Senate Chamber how many internal trade barriers, specifically, this government has fully eliminated, and can you name those trade barriers?
I will repeat what Minister LeBlanc said when he came here. With Bill C-5, all federal-interprovincial barriers have been abolished at the federal level. There is a certain number of barriers that exist because of provincial regulation. As I mentioned to your colleague Senator Martin, the federal government is working closely with the provinces and territories to make sure that those barriers will be eliminated.
It’s work that we do in collaboration, and we will continue to have discussions with the provinces, whose elected leaders understand very well that it would be a very good idea to abolish those barriers. However, there are certain local considerations that still have to be discussed.
The federal government should be showing leadership, government leader, and they’re not.
First it was the promise of Canada Day, then full-effect services and tradespeople by the end of the year; now it’s model legislation by the end of the fall. Which one of those deadlines is the real one? This government has had 18 months. It’s no longer fresh or new.
How much longer does this government actually need to deliver? Eighteen months? Thirty-six? Sixty? I’m curious.
Leadership is about acting the way you said you would, and that’s what the government did by adopting Bill C-5. We abolished everything, and that is leadership.
Based on that leadership, we continue to discuss and work with the provinces to show them that there is benefit to having free trade in our country making sure all Canadians become their own best consumer.
