How the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs can fuel economic growth

After over a year-and-a-half of lockdowns and sacrifice, Canadians are seeing the benefits of their efforts to stop COVID-19. The pandemic is not over, but we can now look beyond COVID to plan for our future. Now, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce is writing “mandate letters” to members of the Cabinet with policy priorities that will support growth of the Canadian economy.

Under Canada’s federal-provincial system, the key economic policies affecting businesses originate at different levels of government. Growing our economy will require enhanced cooperation between the federal government and the provinces.

The Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs should:

• Work the provinces to develop an interoperable system of digital health credentials to avoid a patchwork of applications across the country.

• Work with the provinces and territories to remove exceptions to the Canadian Free Trade Agreement.

• Improve labour mobility by working with provinces and territories to facilitate the mutual recognition of standards.

• Work with the provinces to ensure coherent rules within Canada on frameworks to protect consumer privacy rather than a proliferation of differing rules at the subnational level.

To see all 21 of our mandate letters to ministers, click here.