The Bruce Report

So it was again at its annual Business Outlook Conference in November where, during its roadshow through Halifax, Moncton and Saint John, in rooms packed with the region’s leading lights of commerce and industry, it posed a question of such obvious significance that even the most ardent brave-new-worlders were caught nodding their heads. “A key competitiveness priority for Atlantic Canada is building a better business environment,” said APEC president Elizabeth Beale. “And that means reducing interprovincial barriers. The question is whether we should adopt an Atlantic protocol similar to the B.C.-Alberta Agreement on Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility.”

Naturally, given the composition of her audience, she didn’t actually declare that cross-border economic coherence between Atlantic Canada and New England is an idea whose time will never come, but the implication was clear: It won’t arrive any time soon without a concerted effort to first eliminate the obstacles that continue to block the free flow of commerce within the Maritimes and Newfoundland and Labrador. Again, though, the question hung in the air like a pregnant pause: how do we proceed?

Back in 1991, Frank McKenna, who was New Brunswick’s premier at the time, told me, “We have a range of initiatives to consider. They include the expansion of common procurement practices by government; regional tourism campaigns; coordinated delivery of medical care; unrestricted loans; a Maritime investment corporation; a Maritime energy grid; the portability of qualifications for skilled trades and professions; Maritime commercial offices abroad; and common motor vehicle legislation.”

He went on to expound on the integrated marketing of natural resources; the rationalization of farm production and food processing; and the establishment of common regional strategies for developing transportation infrastructure, commercializing and marketing cutting-edge technologies; and liberalizing the rules governing business incorporations and relocations.

With few exceptions, however, none of this ever came to pass. As a result, the region is materially poorer for its lack of progress. All of which suggests, as APEC certainly implies, it may be necessary to look elsewhere for our solutions if only because we seem embarrassingly incapable of devising ones of our own.

The B.C.-Alberta Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) is, if nothing else, an exercise in economic courage. It concedes that fear, in the form of protectionism, had governed relations between the two provinces until last April when their governments finally agreed to create a single, seamless, inter-jurisdictional market of 7.5 million people, the second biggest in the country behind Ontario. Said the Honourable Gary Mar, Alberta’s Minister of International and Governmental Relations, in September: “For years, business has called for more open trade between provinces and our governments have explored the idea. But, real free trade eluded us because [we didn’t want to] put our own economies at risk if we opened the door too far. . .Well, we’ve blown the door off its hinges.”

TILMA’s reforms are, indeed, extensive. For one thing, it thoroughly opens up the burgeoning energy sector in western Canada, permitting the unfettered movement of goods and services between the Pacific coast and the oil patch. For another, it ensures that both professionals and tradesworkers are treated in British Columbia as they are in Alberta – and vice versa – as long as they’re occupationally accredited in either of the two provinces and able to show up for work on time.

TILMA also harmonizes investment regimes and regulations, government procurement policies, agricultural output and pricing, transportation infrastructure and related development, and financial services. Soon, its signatories say, the agreement may encompass various segments of the public sector, including municipalities, school boards, publicly funded academic instituitions, health and social services, and provincial Crown corporations.

If all of this looks good, but just on paper, consider the following: The B.C.-Alberta agreement will recoup more than $4 billion a year in lost income caused by interprovincial trade barriers. That $500 for every man, women and child living and working in Canada’s Big Sky Country. “We hope this sets a model for the rest of the country to follow,” Gary Mar said.

Well, if not for the rest of country, let’s hope for its most easterly region at least. Atlantic Canada’s noble pursuit of the competitive edge beyond its borders must begin within them. By dismantling the internal trade barriers that tie us to a compromised past, we lay the foundation for a promising future. It’s not sexy or dramatic. But it is right

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