Advocacy Action: interprovincial trade

On August 1, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce provided their written submission for pre-budget consultations to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance in advance of the upcoming federal budget.

Budget 2025 is an opportunity for the government to work with business to spur economic growth, create well-paying jobs, and enable a better life for all who call Canada home.

Shaped by member councils and committees — and on behalf of the broader membership of 200,000 businesses, 100 sectorial associations, and more than 400 chambers of commerce and boards of trade — the submission focuses on four key economic areas.

  • Getting back to fiscal first principles
  • Making Canada more competitive
  • Securing Canada’s national and economic security
  • Fostering Canadian innovation.

Budget 2025 must unite Canadians and businesses around a vision for growing our economy. Our collective goal must be to improve opportunity and the quality of life for Canadians today and tomorrow. Many of the measures included in this submission add little expenditure but will generate future wealth and opportunity for generations.

Of note: "Making Canada More Competitive" 

Make tangible reductions to internal trade barriers. A genuinely open Canadian market facilitating unobstructed movement of people, goods, and services, is the cornerstone of a competitive national economy. Various internal trade impediments, including regulatory complexities, geographical constraints, technical hurdles, and interprovincial regulatory disparities exact a staggering annual toll of over $14 billion. These obstacles curtail market accessibility for businesses, discourage investment, impede economic efficiency, and stifle the seamless circulation of goods and services across the nation. Such obstacles can be scrapped at little cost to Canadians, and doing so will provide lower prices, greater consumer choice, improved mobility for workers and enhanced scale for businesses. The federal government must push for freer trade within our own country.

This submission by the Canadian Chamber connects directly with one of the policy recommendations made by the Kelowna Chamber titled "The Grapes of Wrath: Interprovincial Trade Barrier Reform Still An Issue".

It's not the first time our (and your) voice was heard on this issue. We and the BC Chamber will present this policy recommendation to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce at their AGM in October. With the Canadian Chamber making this particular submission for pre-budget consultations, we are hopeful the policy recommendation from our membership will be adopted nationally as we continue to push for policy action that improves our business climate.

Read the Canadian Chamber's Submission.