New Year’s resolution for government and business in Canada: embrace national vision; eliminate provincial thinking that limits competition and suffocates innovation.
That free-trade mindset is fundamental to success in a world where technology and global economics have erased borders on every front.
The most recent example of that open-trade reality fell into the lap of the Justin Trudeau Liberals when Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations concluded immediately prior to the October 19 federal election and the Liberals’ majority government win. For Canada and the TPP’s other 11 member states, the free-trade deal potentially opens the door wider to a marketplace with a combined economy of more than $28 trillion. But much remains to be done to establish free trade within Canada and co-ordinate national initiatives for the greater good of its provinces.
For example, the country desperately needs a national energy strategy to maximize Canada’s energy riches and ensure that pipeline and other decisions co-ordinate provincial efforts rather than counter or duplicate them. Canada also needs a national innovation strategy so that it can realize regional aspirations of becoming a global player in the technology sector.
But a key starting point is more basic: remove internal trade barriers at all levels. Since it came into effect in 1995, the country’s Agreement on Internal Trade has made some inroads in removing those barriers, but, as the complications of buying wine directly from other provinces illustrate, far too many remain.
On the local front, Metro Vancouver municipalities like Richmond and Burnaby that have made the trial Metro West Inter-Municipal Business Licence program permanent should be applauded. It allows construction trades to operate in multiple municipalities with a single business licence rather than having to apply for licences in each municipality.
Free trade needs to start at home. If not, there’s little hope of succeeding with it in the wider world.
