Bill 47 ‘way to start the conversation'
Bill 47 was passed in the Manitoba legislature on Monday. The bill allows for mutual recognition of goods and services with other jurisdictions who have similar laws.
It comes less than a month ahead of Prime Minister Mark Carney's deadline; he wants free internal trade by Canada Day.
Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun
A line of semi trailers sit parked along the Trans-Canada Highway during a winter road closure. Trucking sector disparities between the provinces are top of mind for many in the move to break down interprovincial trade barriers.
'The last thing we need is trade barriers within our own country when we have them with the rest of the world,' said Bram Strain, president of the Business Council of Manitoba.
He deemed the greenlighting of Bill 47 a 'very positive first step.'
The bill should affect regulations unnoticed by the average shopper. For example, Manitoba will acknowledge other provinces' food label standards when importing products and vice versa.
Such interactions will follow mutual recognition deals between jurisdictions.
Trucking sector disparities are top of mind for some. There are information gaps — such as different systems to check a company's history — and inconsistent vehicle and driver regulations.
Such variation can be costly to trucking companies; and that cost may be downloaded onto farmers, said Colin Hornby, general manager of the Keystone Agricultural Producers.
Retailers, hospitality groups and others shipping goods will benefit from more efficient trucking, Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president Loren Remillard added.
The Manitoba Trucking Association plans to meet with provincial officials about Bill 47's impact.
'We need to work together, because having different standards is challenging,' said Aaron Dolyniuk, MTA executive director. 'What we need to do is harmonize up to a consistently high standard, so that the integrity of safety in the trucking industry is not compromised.'
Manitoba is working with Ottawa on smoothing out trucking regulations nationwide, said provincial Economic Development, Investment and Trade Minister Jamie Moses. He spoke to federal Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland on the topic last week.
(Manitoba recently changed its semi-truck logo requirements to align with other provinces; it was previously an outlier, requiring a minimum width requirement for letter size.)
In general, breaking down interprovincial barriers should reduce prices for Canadians, said Remillard. 'It costs (businesses) less, and they pass that cost on to the consumer.'
If Manitoba signed mutual agreements with every province, Canada's GDP could grow $26.8 billion, the Montreal Economic Institute projected.
Nova Scotia has circled Manitoba as a mutually recognized province, Moses said.
Ontario, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick have also introduced or passed similar legislation. Manitoba signed a memorandum of understanding with Ontario last month; the deal includes better direct-to-consumer alcohol sales and labour mobility.
Hornby, who's among Premier Wab Kinew's private-sector advisers, considers Bill 47 'a way to start the conversation with all the provinces.'
He and others, including the Opposition Progressive Conservatives, stressed a need for more mutual recognition of professional certifications. Health-care staff, veterinarians and lawyers are among the workers business leaders cited.
Bill 47 doesn't apply to occupations covered by the Labour Mobility Act and Fair Registration Practices in Regulated Professions Act to avoid duplication, Moses said.
He's working with federal, provincial and territorial governments on a service standard for credential recognition throughout Canada, he added.
Another Bill 47 carve out: it doesn't apply to goods and services from Crown corporations. Alcohol retailers won't have easier access to other provinces' liquor store shelves, noted Kevin Selch, founder of Little Brown Jug Brewing Co. in Winnipeg.
'The LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) is a bit of a beast to access,' he said.
The LCBO is one of the biggest liquor buyers globally. If Manitoba lowers its markup rates, local craft brewers would be more competitive and have a 'better home court advantage,' offering lower prices and possibly saving money for marketing elsewhere, Selch added.
'We don't want to privatize Manitoba Hydro or MPI and our Crown corporations,' Moses said when asked about the exemption.
The province is focused on direct-to-consumer alcohol sales, Moses added. Brewers have been critical, saying Ontario residents and others won't ship a flat of beer to their homes.
Monday Mornings
The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week.
Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck said he's watching new deals between provinces 'cautiously.'
He fears a 'race to the bottom' on health and safety standards in pursuit of economic activity.
'Worker safety needs to be paramount,' Rebeck said. 'That shouldn't be sacrificed or recognized as a barrier.'
Other provinces care about their citizens' safety; mutual recognition shouldn't be viewed as an unsafe practice, Remillard said.
gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com
Gabrielle PichéReporter
Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle.
Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
National Observer
6 hours ago
- National Observer
A Canadian researcher was 'indispensible' to helping Trump dismantle climate action
A Canadian economist and conservative columnist who recently called Prime Minister Mark Carney a "climate zealot" played a critical role in the Trump administration's push to eradicate US climate rules. Ross McKitrick, an associate professor at the University of Guelph and a senior fellow at libertarian thinktank the Fraser Institute, was one of five co-authors recruited by US Energy Secretary Christ Wright to author a 150-page US Department of Energy (DOE) report that undermined the US government's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. He was "indispensible" to the project, wrote co-author and climate denier Roy Spencer in his blog. The report argues "CO2-induced warming appears to be less economically damaging than commonly believed," and "mitigation policies could prove more detrimental than beneficial." The report was published last week as part of the Trump administration's proposal to repeal the Environmental Protection Agency's Endangerment Finding — the legal mechanism underpinning most US climate legislation. Eliminating the finding, a longstanding goal of climate deniers, lets the government undermine standards that limit emissions, including from oil and gas operations, power plants and landfills. There is a widespread scientific consensus that human activity, mostly burning fossil fuels, is the main driver of climate change. That finding was backed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the European Climate Risk Assessment, and the US's Fifth National Climate Risk Assessment, published during the Biden era. Bill McKibben, the prominent climate scientist, journalist, climate advocate and co-founder of told Canada's National Observer McKitrick's involvement is a rare example of climate denial flowing from Canada to the US. "I suppose it's proof that once in a while the damage goes the other way across the border," he said. If the Trump administration successfully eradicates all US climate measures, the country is projected to emit an extra seven billion tons of greenhouse gases between now and 2030 — like adding an additional 10 Canadas to the world's emissions. A Canadian economist and conservative columnist who recently called Prime Minister Mark Carney a "climate zealot" played a critical role in the Trump administration's push to eradicate US climate rules. McKitrick has been downplaying the impacts of climate change and bolstering the fossil fuel industry for decades. As far back as 2000, he joined a briefing by the so-called "Cooler Heads Coalition," a group with close ties to the oil industry, to criticize the IPCC's Third Assessment Report. "The inclusion of Ross McKitrick, whose work is widely debunked and who isn't even American, tells you just how hard it is to find researchers who will question the overwhelming scientific consensus on carbon dioxide emissions and climate change," said Simon Donner, a climate scientist at the University of British Columbia and a lead author on the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. As the conversation continued around climate change, McKitrick continued to publicly criticize climate science and renewable energy throughout the 2000s and 2010s through his work writing reports for the Fraser Institute and other thinktanks, in news media and as a public speaker. In 2020 he published an op-ed for Troy Media that claims we must ' fight climate extremists before they upend society" and slammed Canada's then-proposed plastic pollution rules for imposing " costs and inconvenience … while doing nothing to fix the [pollution] problem." He remains a prominent voice against climate action, contributing climate-skeptical columns to the Financial Post, the National Post and the oil and gas outlet Energy Now. He also continues to write for conservative thinktanks, including a 2025 report for the Fraser Institute that concludes achieving Canada's net zero goals isn't worth the economic and social cost. A spokesperson for the US DOE said in an emailed statement that McKitrick and his co-authors, the prominent climate contrarians John Christy, Judith Curry, Steve Koonin and Roy Spencer, "represent diverse viewpoints and political backgrounds." Wright, the US energy secretary, wrote in the report's preface that "media coverage often distorts the science" on climate, pushing "many people [to] walk away with a view of climate change that is exaggerated or incomplete. To provide clarity and balance, I asked a diverse team of independent experts to critically review the current state of climate science. "I've reviewed the report carefully, and I believe it faithfully represents the state of climate science today. Still, many readers may be surprised by its conclusions — which differ in important ways from the mainstream narrative," Wright, a former oil and gas executive, continued. In February, Wright described the global effort against climate change as "sinister" and a "tool used to grow government power [and], top-down control, and shrink human freedom' while speaking at Jordan Peterson's Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference. A few weeks later, he attacked Biden-era climate measures as a "quasi-religious' agenda 'that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens.' Climate experts have slammed the new DOE report. Ben Sanderson, senior researcher on climate mitigation at the Centre for International Climate Research (CICERO) in Oslo, dismantled the paper in a thread on Bluesky. The "tiny" list of authors and lack of external peer-review undermines the report's credibility, he wrote. (Reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change usually contain contributions from hundreds of authors.) McKitrick and his co-authors presented "minority contrarian viewpoints" by "isolating specific talking points and presenting them as a comprehensive assessment. "Each chapter follows the same pattern. Establish a contrarian position, cherry-pick evidence to support that position, then claim that this position is under-represented in climate literature and the IPCC in particular. Include a bunch of references, most of which don't support the central argument," he wrote. In a Tuesday post on X, McKitrick claimed that he and his co-authors weren't involved in designing the government's push to repeal the Endangerment Finding and "only knew what was in the news." However, the post links to blog posts by his co-authors Curry and Spencer where they address the key policy head-on: Spencer wrote that the group"suspected the Endangerment Finding would be the topic of greatest interest" to the Trump administration when they were commissioned to write the report. Curry wrote that "the looming US policy issue is the EPA Endangerment Finding" and that she hopes the report will break "Breaking the link between energy policy and human-caused climate change".
Cision Canada
6 hours ago
- Cision Canada
Majority of CUPW-represented employees reject Canada Post's final offers Français
Corporation evaluating next steps following vote outcome OTTAWA, ON, Aug. 1, 2025 /CNW/ - The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) has informed Canada Post that a majority of employees represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) have voted to reject the Corporation's final offers to both the Urban and RSMC (Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers) bargaining units. This means negotiations between the parties remain unresolved. While we are disappointed in the results, we want to thank employees for participating in the process. We would also like to thank the CIRB for administering the vote. This result does not lessen the urgent need to modernize and protect this vital national service. However, it does mean the uncertainty that has been significantly impacting our business – and the many Canadians and Canadian businesses who depend on Canada Post – will continue. We are evaluating our next steps. TM Trademark of Canada Post Corporation.
Montreal Gazette
7 hours ago
- Montreal Gazette
Letters: Canada-U.S. relationship will never be the same
Re: ' American writer shocked by how furious Canadians are with the United States ' (NP Montreal, July 25) In his New York magazine article, the writer suggests the Canadian chill toward the United States will eventually 'thaw,' especially if the next president is a Democrat. Maybe. But I doubt Canadians will soon forget how America turned against us after being the closest of allies and partners for decades. The anger will probably subside, but I believe the relationship will never be the same — never as trusting or as deep. America has shown us who they are. Jerry Trudeau, N.D.G. Rich get richer under Trump The U.S. is projected to receive $300 billion from tariffs collected internationally, while the so-called 'one big, beautiful bill' proposes cuts to government and social services. No plan seems to exist to share tariff revenue with Americans who have the greatest need. Instead, it seems destined to underwrite a tax cut that will benefit the wealthiest citizens. It's expected consumers will bear the biggest brunt of these tariffs. This might be acceptable if the money was being used to help those who are the most impacted by inflation and struggling to make ends meet. But it seems Trump takes from the poor and gives to the rich. Natalie Turko-Slack, Pierrefonds Santé Québec progress report? Re: ' Over 900,000 Quebecers on wait-lists for specialists ' (The Gazette, July 17) More than six months have passed since the CAQ government launched Santé Québec, the bureaucratic adjunct to the Health Ministry. It was supposed to operate with much improved efficiency to deliver better health care to more Quebecers, many of whom now lack either primary care doctors or timely services. As we wait to see concrete results form Santé Québec, I believe it is incumbent upon that organization to present a 'progress report' of what exactly has been accomplished so far and what plans are in the making so that we can have some reassurance that the huge cost for this major bureaucratic organization is not a colossal waste of the taxpayers money. Goldie Olszynko, Mile End Ozzy's Crazy Train late on arrival Re: ' Birmingham, the 'home of metal,' gives emotional farewell to Ozzy Osbourne ' (NP Montreal, July 31) I clearly remember in 1980 when Crazy Train was released as a single and never made it to the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. Seems it was too intense, too heavy metal. This week's Hot 100 has it at No. 46, and it is likely to rise. Turns out this classic has a new life, even if the artist's life had to end. Edmund Gleason, Pincourt Submitting a letter to the editor Letters should be sent by email to letters@ We prioritize letters that respond to, or are inspired by, articles published by The Gazette. If you are responding to a specific article, let us know which one. Letters should be sent uniquely to us. The shorter they are — ideally, fewer than 200 words — the greater the chance of publication. Timing, clarity, factual accuracy and tone are all important, as is whether the writer has something new to add to the conversation. We reserve the right to edit and condense all letters. Care is taken to preserve the core of the writer's argument. Our policy is not to publish anonymous letters, those with pseudonyms or 'open letters' addressed to third parties. Letters are published with the author's full name and city or neighbourhood/borough of residence. Include a phone number and address to help verify identity; these will not be published. We will not indicate to you whether your letter will be published. If it has not been published within 10 days or so, it is not likely to be.
