Liberals introduce bill to cut trade barriers, speed up ‘nation-building’ infrastructure

The Liberal government introduced legislation Friday that it says will eliminate federal barriers to trade and detail how nation-building infrastructure projects will be identified and approved more quickly. 

The One Canadian Economy bill attempts to fulfil campaign promises made by Prime Minister Mark Carney to strengthen Canada’s economy and sovereignty in the face of the economic attacks on Canada by the Trump administration. 

“The imposition by the U.S. of tariffs on Canada has underscored the urgency to quickly address longstanding barriers that have fragmented our economy and limited opportunities for Canadians,” the government said in a statement. 

According to details provided by government officials in a background briefing early Friday, the bill will speed up the approval process of major infrastructure projects, reducing approval times from five years to two.

The bill will also provide a boost to internal trade by recognizing provincial standards for goods, services and labour mobility as having met the federal standard.

Under the legislation, someone who is certified or licensed to perform specific skilled work in a province or territory that wants to take on a job doing the same thing for a federally regulated project will be deemed to have met that federal standard.

The government says recognizing provincial standards will open up job opportunities to workers and give employers a larger candidate pool to draw upon.

The bill only recognizes provincial standards at the federal level. Workers certified or licensed in one province that want to work in another will only be able to do so when that province or territory agrees to drop their trade barriers.

The federal government has rules and standards for businesses on top of regional requirements that apply across provincial and territorial borders.  

Under the legislation, provincial standards for goods and services will be recognized as having already met federal standards. That means a province’s organic standards for food, or energy efficiency standards for appliances, will be treated as having met federal standards. 

This story will be updated.