‘Watershed Moment’: Pandemic Underscores Urgency of Toppling Internal Trade Barriers

Provincial barriers give some foreign companies better access to provincial markets than Canadian companies in other provinces

A CN freight train makes its way through the CN Taschereau Yard in Montreal in a file photo. Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press

News Analysis

Premiers have been calling for freer trade between the provinces and making moves toward it since before the pandemic. Now, with the economy in a shambles and unreliable international supply chains leaving many businesses scrambling, removing interprovincial trade barriers has taken on new urgency.