Reducing interprovincial barriers could boost agriculture sector: report

A report out of the University of Calgary suggests reducing interprovincial barriers would benefit the agriculture sector.

A new report suggests making it easier to move product between province could boost Canada’s agriculture sector.

While 70 per cent of Alberta pork products are exported internationally under federal requirements, Alberta Pork executive director Darcy Fitzgerald says the red table involved when moving between provinces can cause some headaches.

“The issue that many people have brought up in the past is that (they) can’t move product from a provincial plant in one province to another,” Fitzgerald said

The report’s author, Jared Carlberg, says barriers like differing transport and meat-processing regulations between provinces is making it difficult to trade, costing producers money and driving up prices for consumers.

“What we’re doing, in some ways, is putting the brakes on what we might refer to as the free or unfettered flow of goods and services across provinces,” Carlberg said.

“I think everyone, if we gave them the benefit of the doubt, would say they’re doing their part to keep people safe… but there needs to be greater harmonization.”

Carlberg says more collaboration at the provincial level like the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA) between Canada’s four western provinces could go a long way towards loosening restrictions.

“It would be nice to see big picture work happening among greater numbers of provinces with respect to those interprovincial trade agreements, which have been shown to be successful in helping make things move a bit better,” Carlberg said.