, the leaders of our nation’s provinces talked a good game about the need for co-operation “to achieve Canada’s full economic potential.”
There, the premiers have a source for improved competitiveness, productivity and prosperity staring them in the face. As it has for years. Yet they’d still rather talk about almost anything other than cleaning up their own protectionist backyards., a landmark deal that was supposed to have cleared a path to a serious, meaningful opening of interprovincial trade.
These restrictions impede the flow of goods, labour and investment, and the country’s economy is less efficient, less productive and less prosperous as a result. A 2019 paper from the International Monetary Fund estimated that eliminating government-imposed barriers on goods movement could boost per-capita gross domestic product by roughly four per cent.
And yet, the premiers’ meeting came and went without any indication that this is a serious priority among our provincial leadership.