This has been a nagging issue for a long time. There's nothing new about this. Frankly, saying it's been a nagging issue for a long time understates it.
As we look at the great picture up there on the wall in front of us, you know that the Quebec conference of 1864 led to the Charlottetown conference which then led to Confederation in 1867. We're looking at the Fathers of Confederation right here in this beautiful painting.
The job of Confederation is not done, in my view. We always need to remind ourselves that at the time Confederation, there were four provinces that came together and created a federal government. It wasn't a federal government that created provinces and dispersed powers. They created the federal government. We live in one of the most decentralized constitutional structures in the world. It shows itself in a lot of very good ways, but also in a lot of challenging ways.
When I say the job of Confederation is not done, I mean that we allow more economic activity, east and west within Canada, for Americans, for South Koreans soon, and for Europeans ultimately when CETA is brought into force than we allow for Canadians to have access to the Canadian marketplace east and west. I'll give you an example: government procurement. All provinces and territories, which is to say NDP, Liberal, and Conservative provincial governments all across Canada have consented and agreed to the Canada-Europe free trade agreement.
Within the Canada-Europe free trade agreement are included provisions that allow for Canadians to have access to government procurement all throughout Europe. It's a fantastic and brilliant opportunity for a country of 35 million people to have access to a 500-million-person market and all the government contracts at the national, state, and local levels all across Europe. It's a great opportunity for Canada. But the inverse is true. The Europeans have access to government contracts at the national, state, provincial-territorial, and local levels within Canada.
The issue is, Canadians don't have access to Canadian government contracts at all levels of the Canadian economy. Therefore, for example, a young person who lives in Brussels who might have a brilliant idea for a mobile app for the collection of parking fees can sell that to governments within Belgium, within France, within Germany, and have access to those markets and government contracts. They can sell it to Brandon. They can sell it to Lethbridge. They can sell it to Vancouver. They can sell it to Sept-Îles, Quebec. But a kid from Brandon, Manitoba can't sell it to Saskatoon, Vancouver, or Sept-Îles, Quebec. We're allowing more market access for Europeans and Americans than we're allowing for Canadians to have access to the Canadian marketplace, and that needs to change.
I've been beating this drum for almost a year now trying to take advantage of the political fact that in Canada we have a federalist government in the province of Quebec, we have a government that's been re-elected in the province of Ontario that has worked very well with the Government of Canada on some files including Canada-U.S. trade access, the beyond borders agreement, and winning the Detroit-Windsor border crossing, and we have a good working relationship with Minister Duguid on this file. We have elected governments in all parts of the country now—all parts of the country—that are willing and prepared to have a conversation about this.
I've been beating this drum now for almost a year, and we got the subject of internal free trade reform on the top of the agenda at the Council of the Federation this past summer. It was great news that the provinces agreed to have four premiers—McNeil, Wall, Wynne, and Couillard—to sit on a committee as a subcommittee of the Council of the Federation and to come back to the council with a brand new internal free trade agreement that all of them will consent to, of course with the Government of Canada as well.
We've taken a number of steps in previous budgets. We will have new items in next year's budget as well that will try to grease the skids towards more forward progress on the issue of internal free trade.
I'm very proud to be beating the drum and making noise and to be working cooperatively with again, the NDP, Liberal, and Conservative provincial governments all with the goal of making the Canadian economy more efficient so we have more trade opportunities within Canada.
I can point to a number of examples, a number of goods and products. I mean the second largest country in the world in size and the 37th largest in population terms is Canada, but we don't have national standards east and west on transportation. We don't have national standards on fuel. We don't have national standards and agreed-to regulations on tires for trucks, which is the largest industry in Canada for employment. For getting goods east and west, we don't have national standards on that.
We're on the cusp of our 150th birthday and we still don't have cooperation and agreement on these standards. It's ridiculous, and we need to do better. I'm going to keep driving progress forward, and I'm confident we'll get there.
