The managing director of MLI, Brian Lee Crowley, has written some material on the cost of interprovincial trade barriers. He addressed a conference recently here in Ottawa on the matter. It's hard to put a number on it, partly because it's multifaceted. For example, a big concern of mine is labour markets. What are the costs? How much of this problem of unemployed people being trapped in central Canada while jobs go unfilled in western Canada is due to the fact that it's difficult to get your credentials recognized out there? We really don't have a good handle on this, but anything that inhibits the mobility of labour is certainly going to reduce the productivity of this country.
On September 29th, 2014. See this statement in context.