No closer to ‘common market’

The McDonalds, for business purposes, view Canada as 13 miniature nations.

They’ve unrolled their digital health app, Bobo, across the country. Bobo connects parents with service providers such as speech pathologists and physiotherapists.

“We basically felt like if we could prove out the 13 different (Canadian) territories, we had a multinational platform that was ready to go,” said Grant McDonald, who co-founded Bobo with his wife Klaudia.

He estimates staff spend hundreds of hours annually on complying with different provincial and territorial rules — including varying privacy laws, sales taxes and health-care service frameworks.

Canadian and provincial governments promised last year to break down interprovincial trade barriers. McDonald hasn’t seen change. “Right now, it’s … more talk than action,” he said.

A recent International Monetary Fund report projects Manitoba’s real GDP per worker would jump 12.2 per cent if all internal trade barriers were removed.

In June, Manitoba passed Bill 47, allowing the province to mutually recognize goods and services from other jurisdictions with similar laws.

In November, Manitoba joined fellow Canadian provinces, territories and the feds in signing an agreement to drop trade barriers on most goods.

Still, business owners haven’t felt tangible change. Bobo operates in all provinces and territories; it’s less innovative because of “administrative burdens,” McDonald said.

“Every time that we’re adhering to a different framework, we’re not focused on driving our product forward.”

Farmery Estate Brewery wants its alcohol beverages on Ontario liquor store shelves. That hasn’t been possible yet, said co-owner Chris Warwaruk.

The company’s non-alcoholic items — its energy drinks and sodas — have landed in grocery stores in Dryden, Thunder Bay and Kenora, Ont.

“Private companies like Farmery dealing with private grocery stores, (it’s) easy to do business,” Warwaruk said. “There is no private entity that is putting up barriers. It’s the government liquor stores that are.”

Manitoba is considered one of the most progressive provinces on interprovincial trade; the Canadian Federation of Independent Business gave it an “A-” in its annual interprovincial co-operation report card last year.

Premier Wab Kinew said he discussed interprovincial trade with his counterparts last week in Ottawa.

“I think all the premiers want to be able to open up more economic opportunity,” Kinew told reporters on Jan. 30. “Knocking down internal trade barriers is one of them.”

There’s complexity, Kinew noted: each regulation has people behind them who need to be engaged with. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, for example, has thousands of agricultural producers who’d be affected by change.

Canadian leadership must take care of people involved, Kinew said.

Meantime, the bills keep piling for companies like Bobo. Money funnels to compliance, sometimes through auditor and lawyer fees, McDonald said.

“For many companies, even in this most challenging environment we have with the United States, it is still easier — and less costly, in many instances — to continue to export and do trade to the south of us than it is east-west,” said Loren Remillard, president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.

“Our interprovincial trade barriers have made it attractive to go north-south versus east-west.”

Non-geographic, policy-related barriers within Canada can equate to about a nine per cent tariff nationally, on average, economists with the International Monetary Fund found.

Smaller provinces and northern territories face higher costs in sectors such as retail trade, health and education than larger provinces with diversified economies, the IMF notes.

Nationally, around $532 billion worth of goods and services crossed interprovincial borders in 2023. It accounted for 18 per cent of Canada’s GDP.

“In a perfect scenario, all the provinces would come together and recognize we’re one common market,” Remillard said, noting Ottawa has constitutional power over the regulation of trade and commerce.

Tom De Nardi, president of wholesaler Mondo Foods, hasn’t seen food prices drop following announcements of better interprovincial trade. Removing quotas on items such as dairy and poultry would increase competition, lowering prices, he said. (Removing quotas has been a contentious issue in Canada and a sticking point in U.S. trade negotiations.)

Some industries are working behind the scenes to harmonize nationally. Minimum standards applying to long-combination trucks in all Canadian jurisdictions have been drafted, said Aaron Dolyniuk, executive director of the Manitoba Trucking Association.

He’s on a national task force for vehicle weights and dimensions. Signage on wide loads, for example, is being examined. National standardization on signage and weights could lead to “huge” time savings, Dolyniuk said, adding he’s unsure when the drafts will be implemented.

“There’s … a big shift towards (focusing on) defence right now, which is not bad, but we can’t lose sight of our interprovincial trade issues,” Dolyniuk said.

Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba is contributing to a national member database, where provincial entities will be able to check if workers are registered and in good standing in other jurisdictions.

The database may take a couple years to finish, said Michael Gregoire, Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba’s chief executive. The time is needed to gather stakeholder feedback and incorporate bilingualism, he added.

Buying local — including through government procurement — is faster than changing interprovincial trade barriers, said McDonald.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com