Article content

Next Tuesday, I’ll be joining premiers from Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories in Saskatoon for a three-day conference on how we can strengthen economic partnerships and advocate for shared priorities ahead of this year’s federal election.

While Canada-U.S. trade and international trade tensions are still top of mind, my colleagues and I are also focused on eliminating trade barriers much closer to home.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Doug Ford: Making Canada open for business means removing internal trade barriers Back to video

For example, if you want to build a new power plant in Quebec, you can’t hire a company from Ontario to help.

Outdated interprovincial trade rules clip the wings of Canadian businesses

If you’re an Ontario trucking company, you need to cover the cost of making different sets of tires to meet the different weight requirements in each province, even if the changes are slight.

Until recently, if you wanted to buy alcohol from other Canadian provinces or territories, you were out of luck.

These are of just some of the restrictive and outdated interprovincial trade rules that clip the wings of good Canadian businesses that want to get their products to market within the borders of our own country.