The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is calling on the federal government and all provincial governments to upgrade Canada's internal trade agreement. Manitoba Director of Provincial Affairs Elliot Sims says this agreement was first signed in the early 1990's and a lot has changed since then. Sims notes this is especially true with a number of international trade agreements which have actually made it easier in some cases to trade with companies in the U.S. or Europe rather than with our neighbours next door in Saskatchewan and Ontario. He says this issue is of major concern here in Manitoba, because we sell goods into other parts of Canada more than any other province.

Sims notes meat inspections are one example of this problem, adding if you're a federally regulated plant you can sell your products to the States, but if you're only provincially regulated you can't sell your goods to other provinces. He adds one would think that if meat was registered as safe to consume in Manitoba, it should be safe to consume in Ontario.

Sims says up until a short while ago, there were even ten different standards in place for what needs to be included in a first aid kit in each of the ten provinces. He notes many of these issues are really simple things and we should be able at the very minimum to recognize standards in other provinces as acceptable in Manitoba. Sims adds we can also work together on more complicated issues to create a new type of standardized regulatory process across the country.

He says one idea to improve the internal trade agreement is a negative listing approach, which means that interprovincial trade on all goods and services is permitted unless specifically excluded in the agreement. Sims notes right now the system is more like a game of "whack a mole" as everyone tries to iron out the many problems which crop up.