Edmonton Chamber of Commerce CEO, Doug Griffiths, discusses interprovincial trade barriers with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Michael Higgins: What do you see Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick achieving in signing that memorandum of understanding? How much weight do you see their agreement ultimately carrying?
Doug Griffiths: I think it’s pretty significant. Even if it’s not immediate, practical, financial spin offs, the mindset change, the shift that this is going to create across Canada, I think, is incredibly important.
I was a bit worried that if the Trump tariffs disappear, that we go back to business as usual. But we can’t afford that. We need a constant mindset, and to be vigilant that these interprovincial trade barriers are impacting the Canadian economy to significant negative impacts, and we need to make some adjustments. So this is a great first step, and I hope it’s a mindset shift.
MH: Alberta wasn’t at the table with those provinces. Could it, or should it have been?
DG: I think this isn’t going to evolve all the way across the country overnight. I think Premier Smith’s calls to the premier of Quebec are a great first step, and I think, as they work on this down east, we can work on this across the west.
Alberta and Saskatchewan, and Manitoba and B.C., we can have a coming together. So hopefully instead of trying to deal with 10 or 13 jurisdictions with different rules and regulations impeding free trade, we wind up maybe with two systems that can then merge more successfully into one system.
So every bit of the step is going to happen, and I hope we’re working on this.
MH: So you maybe see Alberta partnering in a similar fashion with the other prairie provinces, B.C. included in that as well.
DG: I do. Former Premier Stelmach led the charge with the New West partnership for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, to eliminate some of those trade barriers because he saw how important that was. I think that that will continue to evolve.
MH: Whether it’s political or otherwise, from your standpoint, in representing the business community, how much headway has been made in Alberta on the removal of trade barriers since the chaos of the Trump tariff started blowing up?
DG: There’s been some headway. There’s been conversations between the premier of Quebec and our premier. I know that the premiers across the western provinces have been having conversations. It’s never going to be quite enough because we have a lot of progress to make.
We’ve got two generations worth of evolved regulations that are impeding our ability to move goods from one province to the other, and I would love to see it all done overnight, as long as we’re being vigilant and we’re making great progress. But, if we become complacent again, as I’ve said, we’ve got three and a half more years of chaos under the current president of the United States and if we don’t make progress, then six months from now, if we’re back in this situation, it will be our fault, not theirs.
MH: How do you see the outcome of the federal election playing into all of this and the expediency of how this evolves?
DG: Whoever wins and becomes the next prime minister, their party, their cabinet, their caucus, this has got to be a top priority. Getting rid of those interprovincial trade barriers can add hundreds of millions of dollars to our economy.
A couple hundred million dollars change to our GDP, grow up by three-and-a-half to four per cent, we’re sitting on our own restrictions, on our own restricted economy because of these provincial trade barriers.
Whoever becomes prime minister needs to make this a top priority going forward, until it gets resolved, so that we can improve our productivity and achieve the economic success that we deserve in this country.
MH: On that point of expediency, Nova Scotia’s Premier, Tim Houston, told the media during that signing ceremony, the goal is full free trade across Canada by Canada Day. How realistic a goal is that?
DG: I think that’s probably not possible, but a noble goal, nonetheless, I would love to see so many of our restrictions reduced or eliminated. I like to point out that when Alberta and Saskatchewan and Manitoba were first discussing free trade, after all the evaluations on where the limitations were, they came back and said that they could finally agree on what colour, what shade of yellow paint, should be on the borders of the highway. It was that ridiculous.
So it’s a noble goal, but frankly, these are not life-and-death situations. These are just egos and whose rules are going to dominate. I think we can fix those if all the provinces drop the, “It has to be my way or I’m not going to cooperate,” and just find a system that works.
Knowing that we’re probably going to have to evolve it and change it, just like we always do with new regulations for generations to come, but we need a system that makes sure that we can eliminate the interprovincial trade barriers, and by Canada Day, that would be a fantastic achievement.
