‘Building up Team Canada’: Manitoba, Ontario vow to reduce trade barriers Kinew signs agreement with Ford to fight U.S. tariffs By: Carol Sanders Posted: 7:06 PM CDT Wednesday, May. 14, 2025 Last Modified: 12:10 PM CDT Thursday, May. 15, 2025 Updates

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and Ontario Premier Doug Ford signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday to reduce interprovincial trade barriers and improve labour mobility between the two provinces.

It’s the third such agreement Ontario has signed with other provinces signalling their intention to work together amid tariffs imposed by the United States.

“We’re knocking down trade barriers and we’re building up Team Canada,” Kinew said at a news conference with Ford in Toronto. The document is short on details but long on ambition and turning a trade war launched by the U.S. into an opportunity for Canada, the premiers said.

“We know our country has been threatened,” said Kinew. “I think we’ve got a real window of opportunity now to do nation-building projects that have just been ideas for the past number of years. Now we can get shovels in the ground with people being able to work right across Canada.”

Getting rid of trade barriers and freeing up labour mobility between the provinces requires trust, the Kinew said.

“We trust that somebody who gets a red seal in Ontario, a professional designation in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick — we trust that they’re going to be able to do great job if they come to Manitoba and we can guarantee that you can trust us as well, too — that when we send our tradespeople, our engineers, we send our best to go work on a project in Ontario, they’re going to be able to get the job done right.”

The value of interprovincial trade between Ontario and Manitoba in 2021 was $19.5 billion.

Ford and Kinew said they’re optimistic more provinces will get on board with interprovincial free trade as the premiers meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Saskatoon on June 2. Carney has said he wants a national free trade deal in place by Canada Day.

“I think we’re all going to come on board — by July 1, hopefully,” Ford said.

After years of talk about interprovincial free trade, Ford and Kinew have an opportunity to take the lead and make it happen, said Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce chairman and Little Brown Jug Brewing Co. founder, Kevin Selch.

“We could have always made ourselves more prosperous by doing these things to integrate our economy and we chose not to until we have this external force,” Selch said.

He hopes the deal signed Wednesday is “ambitious” and leads to better access for Manitoba brewers on Ontario liquor store shelves, noting Manitoba Liquor Marts have given “really good access” to Ontario breweries.

Regulated professions and government employees are waiting for details about labour mobility.

Red flags were raised in other provinces about professionals being allowed to start practising before they’re registered with the local provincial licensing body.

“The concern around that approach is that the local provincial authority then doesn’t have jurisdiction over the person, so they can start providing their services but wouldn’t be subject to the complaints and discipline process because they’re not yet licensed with that organization,” said Mike Gregoire, CEO and registrar of Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba.

He said his organization does not have those concerns.

“We’ve been tracking it and keeping open communications with the government to make sure our voice is heard in this regard.”

Manitoba pharmacists say their profession has a nationally standardized education so labour mobility isn’t an issue. Losing pharmacists to other provinces remains a threat, though, board member Marianna Pozdirca said at the legislature Wednesday.

“Because the scope of what pharmacists can do is much greater in other provinces, we get concerned about Manitoba graduates moving to other provinces because they can actually practise their full education there,” Pozdirca said.

In question period, Liberal MLA Cindy Lamoureux asked Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara why Manitoba doesn’t allow pharmacists to expand their practice to include things like prescribing contraceptives, as is the case in B.C. Asagwara said the province wants to expand pharmacists’ scope of practise and ensure “Manitobans have greater access to primary care with pharmacists.”

The Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union wants to see increased trade across the provinces president Kyle Ross said

“There’s definitely going to be some opportunities. We’re hopeful that it helps Manitoba’s economy grow. We believe that we have to find other ways than just dealing with the United States. We want to ensure that workers in Manitoba are protected and our public services are protected.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.