Latest news with #UnlockingRegionalGrowth:TheRoleofInternalTradeCosts
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Leading Experts Convene in Halifax for Economic Forum on Trade, Competition, and Growth
HALIFAX, NS, June 5, 2025 /CNW/ - Today, Halifax Partnership, the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, and the Public Policy Forum (PPF) co-hosted a dynamic economic forum, bringing together top policymakers, economists, and industry leaders from across the region to tackle one of Canada's most pressing economic challenges: unlocking growth by reducing internal trade and regulatory barriers. The event sparked lively discussions and fresh ideas on how greater interprovincial cooperation and smarter regulation can boost productivity and competition and fuel long-term prosperity across the country. Trevor Tombe, Director of Fiscal and Economic Policy with the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and a Fellow at PPF, delivered the keynote address, sharing findings from a new report, Unlocking Regional Growth: The Role of Internal Trade Costs in Atlantic Canada, released today by PPF. "The cost of doing business across provincial borders is quietly placing strain on our economy," said Tombe, whose research has shown that the Atlantic provinces are the most profoundly affected by internal trade barriers in Canada. "The Province of Nova Scotia, along with Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island, is taking steps to improve trade and investment opportunities between provinces." According to his new research, the cost of moving goods between the Atlantic provinces is equivalent to a six per cent tariff, while the cost of trading services is nearly 39 per cent. "To put that in perspective," said Tombe, "the national averages are much lower—around 1.4 per cent for goods and 16.8 per cent for services. "Reducing internal trade barriers in Atlantic Canada is a low-cost, high-impact policy lever with the potential to significantly boost wages, productivity, and economic growth. This is not just good policy for Atlantic Canada, it benefits the entire country." The forum also featured insightful discussions with government and private sector leaders who shared real-world insights and perspectives on opportunities and challenges related to breaking down trade, competition, and regulatory barriers in Canada. Key public sector voices included Nova Scotia Finance Minister John Lohr, Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore, Jeannine Ritchot, Assistant Deputy Minister, Multilateral Relations & Internal Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs, Government of Canada, and Angela Houston, Executive Director, Trade and Economic Policy, Nova Scotia Department of Intergovernmental Affairs. To find out how reducing trade barriers between provinces can drive economic growth across Canada find Trevor Tombe's full report here: Quotes "Nova Scotia is showing the country how to move forward in removing productivity barriers related to trade, regulation, and competition. Provincial trade agreements between Nova Scotia and a growing number of other provinces are leading the charge, making it easier for workers, businesses, and services to move freely across borders." - Ian Munro, Chief Economist at Halifax Partnership "Provinces hold the key to unlocking Canada's economic potential. By strengthening internal trade and labour mobility, we can reduce our reliance on volatile international markets and build greater resilience against external shocks like tariffs. It's time for provinces to step up and drive Canada's long-term prosperity."-Trevor Tombe, Professor, Department of Economics & Director of Fiscal and Economic Policy School of Public Policy, University of Calgary and Fellow, Public Policy Forum "PPF has had a long-standing interest in Atlantic Canada's economic prosperity, including the creation of our Atlantic Momentum index to track growth indicators over time. We look forward to documenting the positive impact of removing trade barriers, increasing productivity, and attracting investment throughout the region, as well as stories of change that will be a consequence of these actions."-Inez Jabalpurwala, President and CEO of the Public Policy Forum About the School of Public PolicyThe School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary is undertaking Canada's Productivity Initiative, a year-long national project that explores key drivers of Canada's lagging productivity and growth. The Halifax forum follows successful sessions in Calgary and Ottawa and will be followed by events in Vancouver, Montreal, Saskatoon, and Toronto, culminating in a comprehensive policy recommendations report to be released in late 2025. About Halifax PartnershipThe Halifax Partnership is Halifax's public-private economic development organization, dedicated to building an inclusive, thriving, and prosperous Halifax in collaboration with its Investors and partners. The Partnership is leading The Productivity Puzzle initiative, a series of events, discussions, and research designed to spark a broader conversation around Nova Scotia's critical productivity crisis and solutions that could improve economic growth, living standards, and future prosperity. Learn more at About Public Policy ForumThe Public Policy Forum (PPF) brings together leaders from across sectors to improve policy outcomes for Canadians. A non-partisan organization with a 30-year history, PPF fosters inclusive dialogue, delivers impactful research, and champions innovative approaches to policy development. SOURCE Halifax Partnership View original content:
Cision Canada
3 days ago
- Business
- Cision Canada
Leading Experts Convene in Halifax for Economic Forum on Trade, Competition, and Growth
HALIFAX, NS, June 5, 2025 /CNW/ - Today, Halifax Partnership, the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, and the Public Policy Forum (PPF) co-hosted a dynamic economic forum, bringing together top policymakers, economists, and industry leaders from across the region to tackle one of Canada's most pressing economic challenges: unlocking growth by reducing internal trade and regulatory barriers. The event sparked lively discussions and fresh ideas on how greater interprovincial cooperation and smarter regulation can boost productivity and competition and fuel long-term prosperity across the country. Trevor Tombe, Director of Fiscal and Economic Policy with the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and a Fellow at PPF, delivered the keynote address, sharing findings from a new report, Unlocking Regional Growth: The Role of Internal Trade Costs in Atlantic Canada, released today by PPF. "The cost of doing business across provincial borders is quietly placing strain on our economy," said Tombe, whose research has shown that the Atlantic provinces are the most profoundly affected by internal trade barriers in Canada. "The Province of Nova Scotia, along with Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island, is taking steps to improve trade and investment opportunities between provinces." According to his new research, the cost of moving goods between the Atlantic provinces is equivalent to a six per cent tariff, while the cost of trading services is nearly 39 per cent. "To put that in perspective," said Tombe, "the national averages are much lower—around 1.4 per cent for goods and 16.8 per cent for services. "Reducing internal trade barriers in Atlantic Canada is a low-cost, high-impact policy lever with the potential to significantly boost wages, productivity, and economic growth. This is not just good policy for Atlantic Canada, it benefits the entire country." The forum also featured insightful discussions with government and private sector leaders who shared real-world insights and perspectives on opportunities and challenges related to breaking down trade, competition, and regulatory barriers in Canada. Key public sector voices included Nova Scotia Finance Minister John Lohr, Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore, Jeannine Ritchot, Assistant Deputy Minister, Multilateral Relations & Internal Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs, Government of Canada, and Angela Houston, Executive Director, Trade and Economic Policy, Nova Scotia Department of Intergovernmental Affairs. To find out how reducing trade barriers between provinces can drive economic growth across Canada find Trevor Tombe's full report here: / Quotes "Nova Scotia is showing the country how to move forward in removing productivity barriers related to trade, regulation, and competition. Provincial trade agreements between Nova Scotia and a growing number of other provinces are leading the charge, making it easier for workers, businesses, and services to move freely across borders." - Ian Munro, Chief Economist at Halifax Partnership "Provinces hold the key to unlocking Canada's economic potential. By strengthening internal trade and labour mobility, we can reduce our reliance on volatile international markets and build greater resilience against external shocks like tariffs. It's time for provinces to step up and drive Canada's long-term prosperity." -Trevor Tombe, Professor, Department of Economics & Director of Fiscal and Economic Policy School of Public Policy, University of Calgary and Fellow, Public Policy Forum "PPF has had a long-standing interest in Atlantic Canada's economic prosperity, including the creation of our Atlantic Momentum index to track growth indicators over time. We look forward to documenting the positive impact of removing trade barriers, increasing productivity, and attracting investment throughout the region, as well as stories of change that will be a consequence of these actions." -Inez Jabalpurwala, President and CEO of the Public Policy Forum About the School of Public Policy The School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary is undertaking Canada's Productivity Initiative, a year-long national project that explores key drivers of Canada's lagging productivity and growth. The Halifax forum follows successful sessions in Calgary and Ottawa and will be followed by events in Vancouver, Montreal, Saskatoon, and Toronto, culminating in a comprehensive policy recommendations report to be released in late 2025. About Halifax Partnership The Halifax Partnership is Halifax's public-private economic development organization, dedicated to building an inclusive, thriving, and prosperous Halifax in collaboration with its Investors and partners. The Partnership is leading The Productivity Puzzle initiative, a series of events, discussions, and research designed to spark a broader conversation around Nova Scotia's critical productivity crisis and solutions that could improve economic growth, living standards, and future prosperity. Learn more at About Public Policy Forum The Public Policy Forum (PPF) brings together leaders from across sectors to improve policy outcomes for Canadians. A non-partisan organization with a 30-year history, PPF fosters inclusive dialogue, delivers impactful research, and champions innovative approaches to policy development. SOURCE Halifax Partnership
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Atlantic Canada bears brunt of interprovincial trade barriers but offers a path to change
Interprovincial trade barriers are a drain on productivity and economic prosperity in Canada and nowhere is it felt as much as in the four Atlantic provinces. Goods moving between the Atlantic provinces face trade costs equal to a tariff of approximately six per cent and services face an added cost of approximately 39 per cent, according to Unlocking Regional Growth: The Role of Internal Trade Costs in Atlantic Canada, a new research paper to be published by the Public Policy Forum. Compare this to the national averages for goods at about 1.4 per cent and services at about 16.8 per cent. Liberalizing trade within Canada has long been a challenge, but the rise of protectionism in the United States has set off alarm bells. All orders of government now recognize efforts to diversify trade must dramatically increase. That means boosting international trade and trade between provinces. The most striking aspect of the analysis is the scale of potential gains from full mutual recognition of credentials and the removal of internal trade barriers. These are not marginal shifts, but meaningful changes in provincial income levels and overall economic strength. Unlike tariffs between countries, interprovincial trade costs are not readily observable. They often take the form of non-tariff barriers that arise from differences in rules, regulations, standards, certifications, etc., from one jurisdiction to another. Overall, approximately $9.1 billion is annually traded between the four Atlantic provinces, which represented around 6.5 per cent of the region's economy in 2021. Of this, about $5.6 billion consists of goods, while $3.5 billion comes from services. The high trade cost for services in Atlantic Canada is stunning. It may explain why the services trade accounts for a smaller share of total trade in the region at approximately 40 per cent, compared with the national average of about 60 per cent. This disparity also underscores the importance of credential recognition and the ability for professionals and service providers to operate across provincial boundaries. The challenge for Canada is rooted in a highly decentralized federation that has created internal trade costs not by design, but as an unintended consequence of enacting different rules, regulations, standards and certifications across jurisdictions. It wasn't always this way. Before the early 1980s, internal and international trade volumes were roughly similar in Canada. But as international trade liberalization advanced, the share of economic activity from internal trade declined, while international trade increased. Today, internal trade accounts for about one-fifth of Canada's economy, with international trade nearly doubling that. In the wake of U.S. tariffs, Prime Minister Mark Carney indicated his government will work to lower interprovincial trade costs by eliminating regulatory barriers imposed by Ottawa and making major infrastructure investments. Unfortunately, previous national initiatives have failed to deliver impactful results. For example, the Canadian Free Trade Agreement in 2017 — then the most comprehensive effort to liberalize internal trade in our history — aimed to harmonize regulations across provinces, but it fell short of its lofty ambitions. Since then, several provinces have taken a different approach. One of Canada's more successful ways to reduce trade barriers involves liberalizing trade within a small group of provinces. Several recent memorandums of understanding between provinces have committed to the mutual recognition of credentials, regulations, standards, professional certifications, etc. Among the most ambitious regional trade agreements is the New West Partnership Trade Agreement with British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and, most recently, Manitoba. It can serve as a model for Atlantic Canada. Complacency is the biggest risk that Canada faces, not tariffs, says National Bank CEO The ripple effects of Trump's tariffs compound Canada's continuing economic headwinds Our research indicates that the gain in real gross domestic product (GDP) from reducing trade costs by even one per cent in Atlantic Canada will amount to roughly $200 million annually. Lowering costs by 2.3 per cent would create GDP gains of approximately $500 million. For a country in search of new economic opportunities, internal trade reform is a low-cost, high-impact policy lever, and Atlantic Canada could serve as an example for the country. Trevor Tombe is director of Fiscal and Economic Policy at the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy and a Fellow of the Public Policy Forum. He is releasing his new report at an economic forum in Halifax on June 5. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
