N.S. premier seeks to ‘eviscerate’ interprovincial trade barriers with new bill

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston announced plans to scrap interprovincial trade barriers during a campaign stop with Doug Ford.

At a campaign stop for Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford in Ontario, clad in a Team Canada hockey sweater, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston announced plans to eliminate all trade barriers on Canadian-made goods to be sold in his province.

“Together we will take the first meaningful step to eviscerate internal provincial trade barriers,” said Houston.

The remarks caught opposition politicians off guard in Nova Scotia, who say they didn’t know Houston was making a trade pledge, let alone campaigning with Ford.

“It’s insulting to Nova Scotians that when the premier finally decides to unveil anything, it happens in Milton, Ontario, with Doug Ford for an Ontario audience,” said NDP Leader Claudia Chender.

Chender has been critical of Houston and his government for not doing enough in the wake of U.S. tariff threats and the potential impacts they might present to key Nova Scotia industries.

Houston is now in Washington with Ford, speaking with U.S. law makers about the danger and threat looming 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods would have for industries on both sides of the border.

“The most productive thing we can do for Canadians on behalf of Canadians is just continue to stress how tightly integrated our economies are and how important the relationship is,” said Houston from Washington, D.C., on Friday afternoon. “And I would say that that is working. There’s a lot of people that are having their eyes opened as to how critical these relationships are.”

On Thursday Houston attended the U.S. National Governor’s Association winter meeting alongside Ford and on Friday he said they met with the governors of Nebraska and Georgia.

Nova Scotia’s Finance Minister John Lohr said Houston plans to table the inter-provincial trade bill next week and says they are hopeful other provinces and territories get on board with their pledge.

With the looming threat of increased tariffs on more Canadian goods, Lohr said there’s an urgency around supporting the Canadian economy and sharing goods and services across provincial borders.

“The history of our continent is North and South trade, and we need to focus on East and West trade with ourselves,” said Lohr. “If every Nova Scotian just spent just a little more money on Canadian products, it would make a massive difference to our own economy.”

Lohr said trade barriers within Canada are often harder to navigate than U.S. trade rules due to red tape.

“What has crept up over that past 100 years is regulations and rules that impact all kinds of things like trucking, safety rules, registration rules,” said Lohr. “All of those things make it more difficult to do trade business with other provinces, rather than the U.S.”

The Nova Scotia PC Party confirmed they footed the cost of Houston’s trip to Ontario and said no taxpayer money went towards the trip.

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