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As it has been for more than seven months, trade was top of mind for many of the premiers as they met in Ontario this week for the Council of the Federation summer meeting.
The prime minister spoke with the premiers Tuesday to update them about the trade negotiations with the U.S., and Premier Scott Moe had been signing a few trade deals with Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario.
The premiers have been responding to international uncertainty by working on internal trade and speaking at the end of the three days of meetings, Moe praised the work.
“If there’s any positive from any of this – and I’m not saying there’s a lot – but if there is any positive from any of this, it is the fact that we, in Canada, very much, are looking internally to control what we can control,” said Moe.
He said he’d been seeing more significant work done on that file than he’d seen in the past ten years. Moe thanked his colleagues for taking the issue seriously and thanked Canadians for doing the same.
Moe talked about the prime minister saying he wants to reset the regulatory environment in Canada to build things quicker, something Moe has been vocal about recently. He said the work would build things quicker, attract investment and provide jobs in all the provinces and territories.
The Saskatchewan premier also said Canadians can be proud of the work their federal government has been doing on this, acknowledging in an aside that he hadn’t been the most likely person to say something like that over the last ten years.
In its ending communique, the council said the premiers are working together to improve internal trade and labour mobility to foster a more prosperous economy.
It also talked about the premiers looking forward to a comprehensive Mutual Recognition Agreement, covering all goods, to be implemented by December 2025. It mentioned respecting Quebec’s specificity, and during the news conference, Quebec Premier François Legault said his province prefers to make changes through legislation, and said he expects such legislation will go through in the fall.
Coming out of the meetings, the premiers also promised to undertake at least one trade mission to another province or territory in the coming year to foster more trade and investment and strengthen supply chains.
New West Partnership Trade Agreement
Last week, Saskatchewan’s Premier Scott Moe put forward an offer to provinces across Canada to join the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA) in an effort to strengthen domestic trade.
Created in 2010, the NWPTA was designed to remove the rules that complicate business across provinces. Currently, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba are part of the agreement.
Moe said the NWPTA provides opportunities that are different from the Canada Free Trade Agreement (CFTA).
“For instance, if you are certified as a corporation in Saskatchewan, you can automatically be certified in the other partner provinces as well,” Moe said.
Other provinces have voiced sensitivities surrounding procurement, Moe explained, and is now pushing other provinces to expand the CFTA, to mirror the NWPTA.
Moe said the western provinces will continue to work with the NWPTA, stating the agreement is “ahead of the rest of Canada when it comes to free and liberalized trade.”
– With files from 650 CKOM’s Mia Holowaychuk
