This past week, I led an online discussion for the Economic Developers Association of Canada (EDAC) on responses to the tariffs imposed by the United States. It’s very clear that economic development professionals nationwide are looking for practical ways to support their businesses and area economies. One of the most obvious ways to do that is to for Canada to boost and improve interprovincial trade. This makes sense for many reasons, regardless of U.S. trade policy, and is one important way businesses across the country can diversify their markets and strengthen their supply chains.
Efforts to remove regulatory boundaries to interprovincial and territorial trade are underway at the federal and provincial levels. In February, Transport and Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand announced the removal of 20 federal exceptions under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA). On March 5th, Canada’s First Ministers issued a joint statement emphasizing the urgency of removing internal trade barriers in response to external trade challenges, highlighting the need for a unified domestic market to bolster economic resilience. The Committee on Internal Trade (CIT) brought together federal, provincial, and territorial ministers in January and February to discuss and implement strategies for eliminating regulatory barriers, enhancing labour mobility, and standardizing regulations nationwide. They have launched a portal for public engagement on the issues and issued a report on the findings of a national survey.
These findings offer a promising start to interprovincial trade but also show the room for improvement. In the year before the survey, just over one-quarter (25.4%) of the total goods or services purchased by Canadian businesses came from suppliers in another province or territory; just over one-fifth (22.1%) of the total sales of goods or services were sold to businesses in another province or territory (click here for the full report).
Share of businesses that purchased or sold goods or services interprovincially over the 12 months preceding the survey, by province & territory
Three strategies for Canada to boost interprovincial trade
Regional and municipal economic developers can also take concrete action to support efforts to strengthen trade across provincial and territorial boundaries. In this article, I outline three tactical approaches they can implement across Canada to boost interprovincial trade.
1—Seek out new opportunities for partnerships and collaboration. Canadian economic developers can take advantage of the vast opportunities for partnership and collaboration across the country. This includes fellow economic developers in other regions, chambers of commerce, universities, regional organizations, provincial trade organizations, industry associations, downtown improvement districts, and more.
- Join a national organization like the Economic Developers Association of Canada (EDAC) to connect with your counterparts in other parts of the country
- Develop a list of the industry associations for the primary sectors and subsectors in your region and contact them for information about markets and suppliers to help facilitate connections for your area businesses
- Reach out to universities and business incubators in your area to find out what collaborations or partnerships they already have set up and learn how your EDO can potentially get involved
2—Organize trade missions WITHIN Canada. Sure, it’s always interesting to explore trade connections in other countries, but what about right here within our own incredibly diverse country? Many of us are having the same conversations in different rooms – it’s time to change that.
- Speak to your area businesses and industry leaders to learn more about their potential markets and suppliers within the country, and organize trade missions to visit them. An official visit to the Okanagan, Saguenay or Annapolis Valley will likely yield exciting new opportunities without worrying about currency differences or visas.
- Find out more about the obstacles your area businesses perceive for this kind of trade and help them find practical solutions. For example, 27% of respondents to the CIT survey listed transportation costs as the most significant obstacle to using a supplier in another part of the country. It’s not clear how much of this is merely perception of costs and how much is based in fact but in any case, help them research transportation and logistics companies that can address this concern.
3—Improve information for Canadian procurement. This is already happening in many communities and is being advocated by different organizations (see examples from the City of Calgary and the Indigenous Chamber of Commerce). The lowest-hanging fruit is providing information so governments and businesses can easily find information on suppliers to boost interprovincial trade across Canada. Online data tools that allow businesses to search for this information exist, but tend to be limited or regional. This includes the ZoomProspector tool used by many EDOS (such as the Ontario East Economic Development Commission) or the TrillumGIS site for advanced manufacturing. We need a national procurement portal that Canadians can use to develop business links with each other.
As a global economic development strategy consultant, I’d love to help your organization learn more about these and other strategies and develop customized implementation plans that best meet your needs. Reach out directly (alissa@sklar-consulting.com) and follow me for more actionable ideas.