International Trade Committee on April 16th, 2026

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

Ms. Pohlmann, as we know, the Centre for Productivity and Prosperity at HEC Montréal published a report in 2025 stating that regulatory barriers played a fairly minor role in companies' decision not to participate in interprovincial trade.

The study showed that only 8.6% of them chose not to participate due to barriers. Fewer than 1% of those businesses said that regulations were the primary reason. Rather, the distance between partners was cited as a major factor. I assume the study included a number of companies in your membership as well.

Can you comment on those numbers?

[Corinne Pohlmann]

Certainly, I think that it hasn't stopped a lot of companies from continuing to do business across Canada. However, what it has done is added costs to those businesses in order for them to do business across Canada, which we all pay for in the prices for what we do.

I do believe that, over the years, if a business really wants to grow and to move into a new market, they're going to do it. They're going to find a way to do it, but they're going to do it at a cost. It's not just a cost to the business. It's a cost to our economy and it's a cost to consumers.

This is, I think, what we're trying to achieve here. Even in our membership, almost two-thirds are trading with other provinces today, but three-quarters of them want to do more of it. They want to add on to it. They want to add new provinces. Because of those barriers, it's just adding extra costs that they are not necessarily prepared to take on, and that's the lost opportunity, in my mind.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

If I understand correctly, you're saying that the vast majority of businesses that don't see regulations as a problem have a skewed perception of things.

Is that right?

[Corinne Pohlmann]

Are you asking whether they're incorrect in saying that it's not a major problem?

Again, I haven't seen this survey. I haven't seen to whom it was sent. I'm talking from a small business perspective, and from the perspective of small businesses, an extra cost is a big question mark in their minds, especially today, right now.

Costs have been mounting on small businesses over the last five years. It doesn't matter where they are in Canada, whether they're in Quebec or outside of Quebec. Their costs have been growing, and this is just another thing they have to factor in. That is going to prevent some of them from moving into other provinces, certainly.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

Do I have any time left, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have six seconds. I'm sorry. There's no more time.

Mr. Lawrence, welcome to the committee. You have five minutes, please.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to be here.

I just want to continue from where my colleague, Mr. Mantle, left off.

You said that we don't have free trade in Canada, despite the Prime Minister's promise that by Canada Day we would have free trade in Canada. You also stated, and I would agree, that there's been a lot of paper being pushed on this.

When we actually look at the results, we see that according to the IMF, Trevor Tombe and others, there are about $200 billion that we could generate from additional economic activity. From your experience and that of your members, how much of that $200 billion has been realized?

[Corinne Pohlmann]

I don't know that I can answer that question with any confidence. I don't know.

I think we're only starting to feel some of the changes that have been implemented, or at least attempted, on the ground. It's a bit premature to feel at this point that there is much that has been accomplished in that regard. For example, the Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement that they signed last December comes into effect in June. Even the direct-to-consumer alcohol agreement only comes into effect in May.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

I apologize, but If I could interrupt you, I think it's important for us to clarify something.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in order for the Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement to be put in place on products or alcohol, we need the provinces to all sign on.

[Corinne Pohlmann]

Yes. I believe they all did sign on to the Canadian Mutual Recognition Agreement and have agreed that by June it will be implemented across Canada.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

However, they need to implement it in their own provincial legislatures.

[Corinne Pohlmann]

That's correct.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

Do you know how much of that legislation has been passed?

[Corinne Pohlmann]

We're monitoring at the moment. I think there are maybe three or four that have made movement in this area, but I don't know that for sure. We were also told by some of the federal officials that some of them don't have to introduce legislation, which doesn't make sense to me, but that is also part of it. Part of our next report card, too, is to try to understand whether that has been implemented, how it's been implemented and what it actually looks like.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

From my reading of the literature and from hearing economists, I think very little or marginal progress has actually been made in helping businesses in generating additional economic activity. It's my belief that you need national leadership, because we're caught in a prisoner's dilemma between provinces.

We know as a whole that if all of these barriers go down tomorrow, we're going to gain tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars in the economy. That doesn't mean that taking down an individual regulation will actually help. It could actually hurt the economy. One of the things that we proposed in the last election was to have the federal government actually take a leadership role and reward provinces when they are hurt financially by doing the right thing. Is that something your organization could see being of value?

[Corinne Pohlmann]

It would be something we'd have to ask our members about, certainly.

We have suggested in the past that the federal government can play more of a carrot-and-stick role as well. There are certainly transfers that happen to the provinces. Can you tie some of the changes that they need on internal trade to some of those transfers? We have asked for those sorts of initiatives. Those are the things that I think could potentially be helpful if some of these initiatives don't seem to be making any progress.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

I glanced over the first part of the question, so maybe I'll just return to that quickly.

Do you believe, as I do, that federal leadership is the absolute key here? In the absence of that, even well-meaning provinces will sometimes have to act against the interests of their own people. We need true national leadership. Ultimately, we will not get free trade in Canada, as the Prime Minister promised would be done almost a year ago, until the federal government really steps up.

[Corinne Pohlmann]

Yes, I think national leadership is critical to all of this, but I also know that the provinces have to play a role.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

Yes, for sure.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have one minute.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

I will give that to the committee. I'm a guest here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you.

Madam Lapointe.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I'd like to welcome the witnesses to the Standing Committee on International Trade.

My riding, Rivière‑des‑Mille‑Îles, includes Deux‑Montagnes, Saint‑Eustache, Boisbriand and Rosemère. It's the Lower Laurentians.

I'm sure you're aware that there are supply chains there. We're also very well represented in the manufacturing sector in terms of transportation and the aerospace sector.

Ms. White, I'd like to ask you two questions.

First, what kind of standard or regulation causes the most friction between provinces?

Second, could harmonizing the regulations improve Quebec's productivity and competitiveness?

[Julie White]

Thank you, Ms. Lapointe.

You do indeed have quite a few manufacturing companies in your riding. Two or three weeks ago, I went on a regional tour in your neck of the woods. We had the opportunity to speak with representatives of a number of companies. What we've done is survey our members on several occasions to get as much information as possible. The number-one thing we hear about business opportunities in Canada is that our market is relatively small compared to the international market or the U.S. market, in particular.

Quebec has some major sectors, such as aerospace, in which it's not very easy to do business with another province. That's not how it works. There is a market issue and a type of production issue, which means that companies don't necessarily consider the Canadian market. Eliminating interprovincial barriers won't change that. Some market realities are fixed.

For companies that have the potential to seek markets in Canada, the first thing that comes up is transportation logistics and improving that in terms of time and money. Both aspects are very important. As Ms. Pohlmann said, before deciding whether to develop a new market in Ontario or Manitoba, a business has to take costs into account, and that's still a business risk.

That's really the first thing, which is why it's important to fast-track all supply chain investments, be it in marine transportation or rail company resilience. In recent years, work stoppages have caused a lot of problems. Among other things, that has damaged people's perception of these means of transportation. Some called for simpler trucking rules.

That said, what's important to our members is not necessarily harmonization, once again, but rather recognition of the rules, because there are rules that can be adapted. Our members are used to following them in one way or another.

A number of member companies are already established in other provinces. Having a single Canadian rule for every aspect is not necessarily a good thing. People also want things to move forward quickly. Harmonization takes a lot longer than mutual recognition. If all the provinces agree on mutual recognition, that will reduce costs and the time it takes to adapt to different rules. It could indeed have an impact on productivity, but it would mainly affect business competitiveness. It's really about costs for everyone.

I don't know if my answer is clear.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Yes, it's very clear. Thank you very much.

Mr. Bellisle, could there be rapid progress on some fronts if the rules were harmonized?

What would you suggest in that regard?