Ottawa, August 29, 2014 – Canadian Premiers met in Charlottetown this week to discuss the many challenges facing the Canadian economy. Issues such as greater investment in infrastructure, energy and the environment and labour issues were discussed. The most critical issue on the table was the need to remove internal barriers that divide Canada’s national market into small provincial blocks in some industries.
The agreement currently governing Canada’s internal market – the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) – was concluded in 1994 after NAFTA was signed. Since then, it’s been amended 13 times, but the process of eliminating barriers continues to be terribly slow.