Mr. Speaker, Canada is at a critical moment. U.S. tariffs are battering our country and threatening to push the world economy into a recession. Hard-working Canadians are losing their jobs, businesses are losing their customers and investors are holding back.
A few weeks ago, I travelled to Saskatoon with the Prime Minister and my colleagues, the Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs and One Canadian Economy and the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. We met with the premiers of the provinces and territories. We discussed our plan to strengthen Canada's economic foundations, including through a unified domestic market. We agreed that we need to work together to build Canada.
We agreed to move together quickly to get this done. That is why it is so essential for us to press ahead with a project that costs nothing and can be accomplished at the stroke of a pen: delivering free trade in Canada. According to a 2019 study by the IMF, the impact of these internal barriers is equivalent to imposing a 7% tariff barrier on ourselves.
A 2016 report by Trevor Tombe and Lukas Albrecht in the Canadian Journal of Economics found that removing all barriers to internal trade and labour mobility could lower prices in Canada by up to 15%. A 2016 study by the Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce found that lifting barriers to internal trade could boost productivity by up to 7%.
Free trade in our own country makes sense. For our businesses, it means a bigger domestic market and less red tape.
For workers, this means more opportunities, more jobs, the freedom to pursue their careers anywhere in the country without barriers that penalize them, and the assurance that their qualifications will be recognized no matter where they live. This fundamental freedom to move and work will strengthen individual autonomy and the national social fabric.
Now that the LCBO is not stocking American wine, it makes more sense than ever to be sure that Nova Scotia and B.C. wines can be found on its shelves. A registered nurse qualified in Saskatchewan should be able to get right to work if her family moves to Newfoundland to be close to aging relatives. A plumbing firm in Winnipeg should as easily be able to expand to do jobs in Kenora as it can in Brandon. A trucker should be able to drive from the Halifax Harbour to the port of Vancouver without buying permits to cross between provinces and wasting precious time making technical adjustments after he rolls across each provincial line.
Freer internal trade and easier labour mobility will also help boost our housing industry, including the construction of the modular homes we need to build more homes faster and more affordably.
Ultimately, the decision to build one Canadian economy out of 13 is a decision to trust one another. It is about deciding that the delicious steak that people eat in Calgary is surely good enough to serve in Charlottetown, and that the dental hygienist whose patients in Moncton adore her can be counted on to do the same excellent work when she moves to Quebec City.
The wave of patriotism that has swept across our great country over the past few months has been truly inspiring and invigorating. Let us seize that moment and turn that love of Canada that we all have into action by trusting each other and creating one single Canadian economy from coast to coast to coast.
That is why we introduced this bill. We want to eliminate domestic trade barriers and build one Canadian economy. For far too long, senseless barriers have curbed trade. It is time to mutually recognize provincial and territorial regulations to facilitate trade by Canadian companies throughout the country and allow skilled workers to seize opportunities, wherever they may be.
What is really great is that today, momentum is growing across the country to build one Canadian economy. Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have all already passed legislation to remove barriers to internal trade. British Columbia has introduced its historic economic stabilization act. Quebec is advancing its own legislative reforms. Also, I do want to take a moment to salute the leadership of Alberta on this important issue.
The provinces are working together. Memoranda of understanding between Ontario and other provinces, including Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, P.E.I., Manitoba and Saskatchewan, as well as powerful regional agreements, like the new west partnership, signal new levels of co-operation and a commitment to bring down barriers to internal trade. Our provincial colleagues get it. They are doing the work.
This legislation that we are voting on today, together, is about all of us, members of Canada's national Parliament, joining the provinces in their hard work and doing the federal government's fair share. This bill is an important step towards free trade in Canada.
I want to be clear. Even after today's historic vote, there will be more work to be done, and it is incumbent on all of us to maintain the momentum, to get to truly free trade and truly free labour mobility across our great country, to really build one Canadian economy.
That is why, on July 8, the Committee on Internal Trade will meet in Quebec City to push this effort forward and why, on July 15 and 16, my Department of Transport is bringing together leaders from across the country for a two-day hackathon in Toronto to cut red tape for truckers.
I encourage all members of the House to support this work and deliver on the promise of a truly unified economy.
These are not partisan goals. In fact, colleagues on the other side of the aisle have been championing some of these issues for some time, and I am grateful to them for their work and for their support of this legislation.
That is because this bill is about nation-building priorities. This is a bill that will be good for every region, every business and every Canadian. This is a bill about Canadians trusting each other and working together as Canadians. It is about us doing what Australia did three decades ago, through mutual recognition. That action in Australia pulled that great country together and made every single Australian a little more prosperous. It is high time that we as Canadians do the same thing. I am so delighted and so proud that that is what we are doing with this legislation.
What a delicious irony it will be for all of us, as Canadians, to respond to the tariffs imposed from abroad by finally tearing down the tariff and trade barriers that we have imposed on each other. Let us get this done once and for all. Let us come together and deliver free trade in Canada. Let us do this together.
