CTA welcomes new legislation to remove internal trade barriers

The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) says it is encouraged by the federal government’s move to address economic challenges and improve internal trade.

New legislation introduced last week by Dominic LeBlanc — president of the King’s Privy Council and Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs and One Canadian Economy — aims to eliminate federal barriers to labour mobility and internal trade, while accelerating infrastructure development.

The bill, One Canadian Economy: An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act, is intended to simplify the approval process for national projects by streamlining federal decision-making and allowing goods and services that meet provincial or territorial standards to be considered compliant with federal rules.

The initiative builds on a trucking sector mutual recognition project championed by the CTA and launched earlier this year at the Committee on Internal Trade. At the recent First Ministers’ Meeting, federal, provincial and territorial leaders agreed to expand this work throughout the sector.

“Increasing the efficiency of trucking across Canada complements the removal of federal barriers on goods and services across the economy and in key sectors like home building,” a government statement read.

The CTA has released two documents outlining how eliminating interprovincial trade barriers could unlock productivity and growth in the trucking supply chain.

“CTA has worked diligently over several years to position our industry as the backbone of the supply chain. Our sector needs regulatory attention to operate effectively and productively,” said CTA president Stephen Laskowski. “We now have a wonderful opportunity to address the issues that hindered our sector, our customers and partners within supply chain, and economy as well.”

“Led by Ottawa, now is the time all levels of government need to cooperate in earnest and in good faith, with our industry and concertedly fix these issues,” he said.