Carney Promises to Remove All Federal Internal Trade Barriers by July 1

Prime Minister Mark Carney (C), Ontario Premier Doug Ford (L), and Premier of Quebec Francois Legault (R) take part in the First Minister Meeting at the National War Museum in Ottawa on March 21, 2025. Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government would table legislation by Canada Day to remove all federal internal trade barriers as part of a plan to boost Canada’s economy amid tariff tensions.

Carney made the comments on March 21 after meeting with premiers in Ottawa. It was his first meeting with the group of premiers since being sworn in as prime minister, and it came just days before he is expected to call a federal election.

Carney said he and the premiers agreed to develop a national trade and energy corridor to “diversify and strengthen” Canada’s economy. He said Canadians have become “more united than ever before” and want a single Canadian economy, not 13 separate ones.

Carney said his government is committed to eliminating all federal exemptions in the Canada Free Trade Agreement to ease the movement of goods and improve labour mobility for federally regulated professionals nationwide.

“We intend, from a federal level, to have free trade by Canada Day,” he said, adding that his party “is committing to table legislation by the first of July,” with its feasibility depending on the timing and outcome of the general election.

He also announced funding to build transportation infrastructure to link energy extraction sites to rail lines and roads, saying this connection is “decisive on the economics” of the sector. He added Ottawa would streamline the review of major projects by recognizing provincial assessments as equivalent to federal ones.

Carney highlighted a contribution Ottawa announced earlier in the day of up to $200 million toward the Cedar LNG processing facility on the northern B.C. coast. Ottawa said the project will create jobs, generate more than $275 million in economic growth, and get Canadian energy to domestic and international markets.

Carney also announced new measures meant to help workers and businesses amid tariffs. Some of the new announcements include removing the one-week employment insurance waiting period, allowing businesses defer tax payments, and raising the Indigenous Loan Guarantee to $10 billion, among other measures.

The Conservatives criticized Carney, saying that if he wanted to see Canada export more of its natural resources, he would repeal the Liberals’ Impact Assessment Act, the West Coast tanker ban—which has blocked oil tanker traffic off British Columbia’s north coast since 2019—and the oil and gas emissions cap.

The assessment act, previously known as Bill C-69, introduces federal environmental requirements for major projects such as pipelines. Former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney dubbed it the “No More Pipelines Act” due to the regulatory burden he said the legislation created. The emissions cap, meanwhile, is part of the federal plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. It would require oil and gas companies to lower their greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent below 2019 levels by 2032.

“Instead he doubled down on capping Canadian energy production,” the Conservatives said in a March 21 press release. “Mark Carney has a clear history of opposing Canadian energy and infrastructure projects in favour of his radical anti-energy ideology and his goal of shutting down Canadian energy production.”

Emissions Cap

Carney said at the press conference his government would keep the oil and gas emissions cap and that having regulations or legislation is “simply not enough” to bring down emissions. “What I’m focused on is action in order to reduce those emissions. That requires partnerships,” Carney told reporters.

“It means that you’ve got to be able to get a project approved quickly. You have to be able to have co-investment in those projects. You have to have a clear framework for carbon pricing and others, all of that is required in order to help get those emissions down.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has strongly opposed the cap, saying it acts as a de facto cap on production. Earlier that day, before the premiers met with the prime minister, Smith called on Carney to clarify his position on the emissions cap.

The day before, during a housing announcement in Edmonton, Carney said he preferred to work with the provinces to reduce emissions rather than having “preset caps or preset restrictions” on them. On the same day, federal Environment Minister Terry Duguid said Ottawa would maintain the cap.

“I made it clear that Alberta will no longer tolerate an emissions cap on oil and gas, which absolutely works like a production cap that scares away billions of investment and thousands of jobs, makes us more dependent on the United States, and has been found by Ottawa’s own Parliamentary Budget Office to be greatly destructive to the Canadian economy,” Smith said in an unrelated press conference on March 21.

The premier said that if the next federal government does not address Alberta’s demands, outlined by the premier on March 20, she would consider creating a panel to poll Albertans on how they want the province to respond.

Interprovincial Trade

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who is the chair of the Council of the Federation, called the meeting between premiers and the prime minister “very positive.” He said most premiers were on board with removing inter-provincial trade barriers, except for “one or two.”

“For the most part, everyone’s on board. I’m clearing all exemptions. The feds are clearing all exemptions. Nova Scotia is clearing all exemptions. So as we move forward across the country, eventually everyone is going to hop on,” Ford told reporters.

Last month, Nova Scotia introduced legislation that would reduce restrictions on the sale of out-of-province goods and services for jurisdictions that adopt similar measures. Ford said his province will follow suit. Smith has also said Alberta will remove trade barriers for provinces that do the same.