Business
Canada: It’s Time to Stop Holding Ourselves Back – Lynn Exner

From Energy Now
By Lynn Exner
For decades, Canada’s provinces have behaved like crabs in a bucket—pulling each other down instead of lifting each other up. Instead of working together to build a stronger economy, we’ve allowed outdated trade barriers, regulatory red tape, and political infighting to stifle our own potential.
In my work advocating for Canadian resource development, I see it all the time. Canada has everything the world needs—energy, minerals, lumber, food, and more. But instead of ensuring our own domestic economy is strong and efficient, we’ve made it harder for businesses to grow, both within our borders and beyond them. Instead of celebrating and capitalizing on each other’s strengths, we have spent too much time competing internally, blocking opportunities, and making it difficult to trade internationally and within our own country.
That might have been tolerated in the past, when global trade was predictable and our largest trading partners were reliable. But the world has changed. Tariffs are being weaponized, supply chains are shifting, and countries everywhere are prioritizing their own industries.
If Canada wants to remain competitive, we need to start acting like a country—one with an internal economy that functions as smoothly as our external trade agreements.
The good news is that momentum is finally building to address this issue. Canada’s leaders are talking about dismantling interprovincial trade barriers—something that should have happened long ago. The challenge now is to make sure that this talk turns into action. It has been suggested it could take as little as 30 days. We can’t afford another decade of stalled negotiations, watered-down agreements, and excuses for inaction. It’s time to demand real change and hold our leaders accountable to follow through.
Every region of Canada produces something the rest of the country and the world need. Alberta’s oil and gas, Saskatchewan’s potash, Ontario’s manufacturing, Quebec’s hydroelectric power, British Columbia’s ports, and Atlantic Canada’s fisheries—these industries are the backbone of our economy. They should be supported, expanded, and celebrated. Instead, businesses and workers trying to move goods, services, and expertise across provincial lines face obstacles that weaken our ability to compete globally.
One of the most common-sense solutions is a National Energy and Resource Corridor—a dedicated infrastructure network that allows for the efficient transport of energy, minerals, and other critical resources across the country. Instead of every project facing jurisdictional battles and costly delays, a coordinated, pre-approved corridor would streamline trade and investment, ensuring that Canadian products reach both domestic and international markets without unnecessary obstacles. It would also provide a foundation for future development—whether in oil and gas, renewable energy, or critical minerals—giving businesses and investors the certainty they need to support long-term growth.
We see the need for this in our supply chains, where businesses deal with costly delays just trying to move products between provinces. We see it in our labour markets, where skilled workers face unnecessary barriers to working in other regions of the country. And we see it in national infrastructure projects that could benefit all Canadians but get tangled in red tape.

These inefficiencies cost our economy billions of dollars every year—money that should be driving investment, innovation, and job creation instead of being lost to unnecessary restrictions.
In normal times, this would be frustrating. In today’s economic and geopolitical climate, it’s reckless. The global marketplace is shifting, and Canada must be ready to meet the challenge. Instead of being held back by internal divisions, we need to work together to make Canada a stronger, more self-sufficient, and more competitive trading nation.
We’ve proven that cooperation is possible when it’s absolutely necessary. Now, we need to treat it as a permanent priority, not just a temporary fix during a crisis. This is not just about economic efficiency—it’s about Canada’s ability to stand strong in a changing world.
There is no reason why a Canadian business should have to navigate different rules and restrictions just to expand into another province. There is no reason why a worker should have to requalify to do the same job in a different part of the country. And there is certainly no reason why major projects that create jobs and economic growth should be stalled for years over jurisdictional disputes.
A crisis like this is a terrible thing to waste. The global economy is shifting, and Canada has a choice. We can cling to outdated provincial protectionism and regulatory inefficiencies, or we can remove these barriers and finally build a true national economy. We can keep acting like crabs in a bucket, pulling each other down, or we can recognize that our strength lies in working together. Instead of standing in each other’s way, we should be celebrating each other’s strengths and ensuring that every region of the country can contribute fully to our shared prosperity.
Canada has faced major challenges before, and we’ve always been at our best when we face them as a united country. Now, more than ever, we need to tap into that spirit—not just to fix today’s problems, but to prepare for whatever surprises the future holds. The time for provincial rivalries, excessive regulation, and economic inefficiency is over.
It’s time to break free from the bucket and move forward as a stronger, more competitive, and more resilient Canada.
Lynn Exner is a spokesperson for Canada Action, a volunteer-initiated grassroots group dedicated to promoting natural resource development and economic growth in Canada.
2025 Federal Election
Columnist warns Carney Liberals will consider a home equity tax on primary residences

From LifeSiteNews
The Liberals paid a group called Generation Squeeze, led by activist Paul Kershaw, to study how the government could tap into Canadians’ home equity — including their primary residences.
Winnipeg Sun Columnist Kevin Klein is sounding the alarm there is substantial evidence the Carney Liberal Party is considering implementing a home equity tax on Canadians’ primary residences as a potential huge source of funds to bring down the massive national debt their spending created.
Klein wrote in his April 23 column and stated in his accompanying video presentation:
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) — a federal Crown corporation — has investigated the possibility of a home equity tax on more than one occasion, using taxpayer dollars to fund that research. This was not backroom speculation. It was real, documented work.
The Liberals paid a group called Generation Squeeze, led by activist Paul Kershaw, to study how the government could tap into Canadians’ home equity — including their primary residences.
Kershaw, by the way, believes homeowners are “lottery winners” who didn’t earn their wealth but lucked into it. That’s the ideology being advanced to the highest levels of government.
It didn’t stop there. These proposals were presented directly to federal cabinet ministers. That’s on record, and most of those same ministers are now part of Mark Carney’s team as he positions himself as the Liberals’ next leader.
Watch below Klein’s 7-minute, impassionate warning to Canadians about this looming major new tax should the Liberals win Monday’s election.
Klein further adds:
The total home equity held by Canadians is over $4.7 trillion. It’s the largest pool of private wealth in the country. For millions of Canadians — especially baby boomers — it’s the only retirement fund they have. They don’t have big pensions. They have a paid-off house and a hope that it will carry them through their later years. Yet, that’s what Ottawa has quietly been circling.
The Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation has researched this issue and published a report on the alarming amount of new taxation a homeowner equity tax could cost Canadians who sell their homes that have increased in value over the years they have lived in it. It is a shocker!
A Google search on the question, “what is a home equity tax?” returns the response:
A home equity tax, simply put, it’s a proposed levy on the increased value of your home, specifically, on your principal residence. The idea is for Government to raise money by taxing wealth accumulation from rising property values.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has provided a Home Equity Tax Calculator Backgrounder to help Canadians understand what the impact of three different types of Home Equity Tax Calculators would have on home owners. The required tax payment resulting from all three is a shocker.
Keep in mind that World Economic Forum policies intend to eventually eliminate all private home ownership and have the state own and control not only all residences, but also eliminate car ownership, and control when and where you may live and travel.
Carney, Trudeau and several other members of the Liberal government in key positions are heavily connected to the WEF.
Business
It Took Trump To Get Canada Serious About Free Trade With Itself

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Lee Harding
Trump’s protectionism has jolted Canada into finally beginning to tear down interprovincial trade barriers
The threat of Donald Trump’s tariffs and the potential collapse of North American free trade have prompted Canada to look inward. With international trade under pressure, the country is—at last—taking meaningful steps to improve trade within its borders.
Canada’s Constitution gives provinces control over many key economic levers. While Ottawa manages international trade, the provinces regulate licensing, certification and procurement rules. These fragmented regulations have long acted as internal trade barriers, forcing companies and professionals to navigate duplicate approval processes when operating across provincial lines.
These restrictions increase costs, delay projects and limit job opportunities for businesses and workers. For consumers, they mean higher prices and fewer choices. Economists estimate that these barriers hold back up to $200 billion of Canada’s economy annually, roughly eight per cent of the country’s GDP.
Ironically, it wasn’t until after Canada signed the North American Free Trade Agreement that it began to address domestic trade restrictions. In 1994, the first ministers signed the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT), committing to equal treatment of bidders on provincial and municipal contracts. Subsequent regional agreements, such as Alberta and British Columbia’s Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement in 2007, and the New West Partnership that followed, expanded cooperation to include broader credential recognition and enforceable dispute resolution.
In 2017, the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) replaced the AIT to streamline trade among provinces and territories. While more ambitious in scope, the CFTA’s effectiveness has been limited by a patchwork of exemptions and slow implementation.
Now, however, Trump’s protectionism has reignited momentum to fix the problem. In recent months, provincial and territorial labour market ministers met with their federal counterpart to strengthen the CFTA. Their goal: to remove longstanding barriers and unlock the full potential of Canada’s internal market.
According to a March 5 CFTA press release, five governments have agreed to eliminate 40 exemptions they previously claimed for themselves. A June 1 deadline has been set to produce an action plan for nationwide mutual recognition of professional credentials. Ministers are also working on the mutual recognition of consumer goods, excluding food, so that if a product is approved for sale in one province, it can be sold anywhere in Canada without added red tape.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has signalled that his province won’t wait for consensus. Ontario is dropping all its CFTA exemptions, allowing medical professionals to begin practising while awaiting registration with provincial regulators.
Ontario has partnered with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to implement mutual recognition of goods, services and registered workers. These provinces have also enabled direct-to-consumer alcohol sales, letting individuals purchase alcohol directly from producers for personal consumption.
A joint CFTA statement says other provinces intend to follow suit, except Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.
These developments are long overdue. Confederation happened more than 150 years ago, and prohibition ended more than a century ago, yet Canadians still face barriers when trying to buy a bottle of wine from another province or find work across a provincial line.
Perhaps now, Canada will finally become the economic union it was always meant to be. Few would thank Donald Trump, but without his tariffs, this renewed urgency to break down internal trade barriers might never have emerged.
Lee Harding is a research fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
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