Freeing up trade and keeping workers safe

Opinion

Over the last few months, we have heard a lot about the need to remove so-called interprovincial trade barriers, driven by political responses to the impacts of Donald Trump’s trade threats and tariffs on the Canadian economy. Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he wants interprovincial trade barriers taken down by Canada Day.

Here in Manitoba, the NDP government recently passed Bill 47, legislation that the government claims will free up interprovincial trade.

While interprovincial trade barriers are clearly something that politicians of all political stripes are currently focused on, the actual evidence of barriers that exist is a bit murkier. When I talk with my business counterparts, I find they are often hard pressed to name many examples of specific interprovincial trade barriers that are interfering with trade between provinces.

About a month ago, I had the opportunity to discuss the topic of interprovincial trade barriers with Loren Remillard, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, on a local radio station. The only example of an interprovincial trade barrier that he offered was that each province has individual rules for fall protection.

We have all heard the lofty claims that removing interprovincial trade barriers will unleash billions in economic activity. But I fail to see how taking away a province’s ability to set strong protections to keep workers from falling from roofs will unleash billions of dollars in economic activity.

Removing interprovincial trade barriers should not be used as code for things that are not barriers at all, but important protections that keep workers safe — like setting high workplace health and safety standards. A healthy workforce is a more productive workforce, and governments should be doing all they can to keep workers safe and healthy on the job. Here in Manitoba, workers continue to suffer over 25,000 workplace-related injuries a year, demonstrating that there is a lot more work to do on workplace health and safety.

When it comes to having common standards across the country, we should be striving to have the best standards, not the lowest.

For example, look at Red Seal certification, something that unions have been major supporters of through training and apprenticeship programs. When someone is Red Seal certified, you know they are well trained, and you can trust the work they do.

For trades workers, that Red Seal is a ticket to a good paying, family-supporting job, and it is recognized throughout our country, meaning you can work anywhere in Canada. Having Red Seal certification demonstrates that a worker has completed the highest standards of training. And the highest standards are something that we should all aspire to when it comes to our economy and our workforce.

Our province’s interprovincial trade legislation will enable Manitoba to identify jurisdictions in Canada as reciprocating jurisdictions, in effect treating that jurisdiction’s standards as equal to Manitoba’s when it comes to the sale of goods and services. It closely copies legislation that Ontario and Nova Scotia have introduced on the subject, and Premier Wab Kinew also signed an interprovincial trade MOU with Ontario a few weeks ago.

But other recent action by Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government should give us pause on going full steam ahead with treating it as a reciprocating jurisdiction, no questions asked. Premier Ford is currently fast-tracking a controversial law to allow cabinet to identify “special economic zones,” which could exempt any company or project in the zone from having to comply with whichever provincial laws, provincial regulations or municipal bylaws the government chooses.

This would open the door for the Ontario government to declare that such things as Ontario’s minimum wage rules or its environmental protections no longer apply within the designated zone, an extreme measure that exists nowhere else in Canada.

As is often the case with vague notions like interprovincial trade barriers, the devil will be in the details of the Manitoba NDP government’s interprovincial trade plans. And these details will only be addressed when the government makes untold numbers of regulatory changes now that Bill 47 has become law.

But Manitoba’s unions will do all that we can to ensure that Manitoba strikes the right balance regarding common sense trade reforms and the best interests of Manitoba workers.

Kevin Rebeck is the president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour.