The premiers of Ontario and Saskatchewan want to take the lead on breaking down interprovincial trade barriers across the country — and have agreed to start making changes in their own backyards first.

Doug Ford and Scott Moe have signed a memorandum of understanding to promote free trade between their jurisdictions. Currently, about $11 billion worth of goods and services are exchanged between the two provinces.

“We’re going to blaze a new trail,” Ford said Tuesday in the legislature.

Following the deal with Saskatchewan, “you’re going to see all the other provinces hop on board. We talk about the USMCA (the new NAFTA) deal — and we can’t even get trade down within our own country.

“But under our leadership, we’ll make sure that happens.”

The opposition criticized Ford on Tuesday for not sending representatives to attend a recent meeting with other provinces on the issue.

New Democrat MPP and trade critic Taras Natyshak said Saskatchewan only amounts to about 5 per cent of Ontario’s total interprovincial trade.

So why were they “the only two provinces to skip a meeting of interprovincial trade this past week?” he said.

“That’s where the other 95 per cent of interprovincial trade is actually being discussed.”

On Monday, after meeting with Moe, Ford said it’s time to “start knocking down the regulations and barriers between the provinces.”

Businesses and leaders have told him “that this is one of the primary obstacles in attracting new investment and jobs to our country.”

But it’s no easy task. At a July meeting of premiers in New Brunswick, the leaders weren’t able to come to any formal trade agreements, only announcing they had a common goal to reduce the limits of alcohol allowed over provincial and territorial borders.

“What we need in Canada is a comprehensive approach, not a patchwork of little one-off agreements,” said New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns after Ford and Moe’s announcement. “This is much more about a media opportunity — a photo opportunity — than it is about anything serious to do with trade in Canada.”

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said any move to reduce trade barriers is welcome, but long overdue.

“In some ways it’s ridiculous that we negotiate trade deals with other countries and we don’t actually have free trade within our own country,” he said.

Ford cited a recent study that said improving trade among all the provinces would give a $50 billion boost to Canada’s GDP over the next decade, about $15 to $20 billion for Ontario alone.

“We can’t afford not to act,” Ford told reporters Monday. “I’m pleased to say Saskatchewan and Ontario are working together. We’re going to lead where Ottawa has totally failed.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

In Ottawa, federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc chided the two premiers.

“It’s extremely disappointing to see Ontario and Saskatchewan play political games with such an important economic file after being the only provinces absent from the table at last week’s meeting in Vancouver on internal trade and the USMCA,” said LeBlanc.

Trade Minister Jim Wilson — who noted he’s been at Queen’s Park for 28 years — said “I can’t name you five interprovincial trade barriers we’ve ever brought down in that time ... If we bring down trade barriers with Saskatchewan, we’ll do more trade, we’ll do more exports outside of Canada, and the rest of the provinces will follow.”

with files from Robert Benzie

Read more about: