In our Conversation with the Candidates federal election event, Liberal candidate and incumbent Sophie Chatel promised People’s Party candidate Todd Hoffman that if elected, her government would lift all federal internal trade barriers by Canada Day. In return, Mr. Hoffman promised a congratulatory phone call, should all barriers to interprovincial trade indeed be lifted.
Chatel was true to her word. Last week the Liberal government, with significant support from the Conservative Party, passed Bill C-5, the Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act, better know by its catchier name, the One Canadian Economy Act. Its goal, we’re told, is to bolster Canada’s economy in face of the ongoing trade war with the U.S.
Half of this bill – the half that got substantial pushback before it was passed – is dedicated to fast-tracking certain “nation-building” projects, as Prime Minister Mark Carney has described them, by exempting them from legislation designed to protect the environment, labour rights, and people’s health from potentially harmful industrial practices.
Carney has assured his government will continue to respect Indigenous consultation rights, but the very way in which this bill was pushed through without meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities is leaving many doubtful.
This editor’s concerns with the implications of this portion of the bill – especially as it applies to the development of nuclear energy – will need to be saved for another time.
Let’s turn to the other half of this bill, which promises to lift all federally imposed barriers to internal trade and increase labour mobility so that goods and services, and labour certifications that comply with provincial requirements will be recognized as meeting the comparable federal requirements.
What exactly this means for the Pontiac, where many meat and alcohol producers are prohibited from selling their goods to markets within a stone’s throw, in Ontario, is still unclear.
Can meat processed in a Quebec-certified abattoir, which under Bill C-5 should be granted it federal certification, now be sold to a customer across the river? When asked this question, our own MP said there are still technicalities to be worked out.
“The government will need to issue regulations to define more concretely what would be the impact of [the bill],” Chatel said in an interview on Friday.
It is surprising to see this promise, one that was central to the Liberal campaign, come through. Previous election promises (ahem electoral reform) never seemed to make it past the ballot box. That said, it may be too soon to tell whether this promise has any teeth. I hope, for all our local meat producers, grape growers, beer brewers, that it does.
But rest assured, Mr. Hoffman, no need to run for the phone just yet.
