Will internal trade barriers be gone by Canada Day? Unlikely, experts say

Throughout the spring federal election campaign, Liberal Leader Mark Carney repeatedly vowed to "eliminate" interprovincial trade barriers and create "free trade by Canada Day."

Federal and provincial leaders are working to dismantle internal trade barriers that push up the cost of goods and make it harder to do business within Canada.

But anyone expecting all of them to be gone by tomorrow should read the fine print.

Throughout the spring federal election campaign, Liberal Leader Mark Carney repeatedly vowed to “eliminate” interprovincial trade barriers and create “free trade by Canada Day.”

The rhetoric has been at times confusing and the political scorecard on this one is hard to track.

With July 1 just a day away, Carney’s government has passed its planned changes into law — but it’s more like the start of a conversation than the final word.

“It’s a starting gun and it’s starting a lot more activity and work, which is honestly the really exciting part,” said internal trade expert Ryan Manucha. “If any of this was easy, it would have been done.”

Manucha writes on the topic for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute think tank and authored the book, “Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups: Canada’s Quest for Interprovincial Trade.”

“When I’m advising governments, I say, ‘Don’t think of this as a light switch,'” he said. “We are changing the way that everyone approaches the concept of regulation and risk here, and so it’s going to take some time.”