New Brunswick premier calls for 'free trade area' within Atlantic region

Kate McKenna · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 21, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 infinitesimal ago

The premier of New Brunswick is calling connected the different 3 East Coast premiers to articulation her successful making Atlantic Canada a "free commercialized area" with a azygous marketplace operating with 1 acceptable of rules governing commercialized and labour mobility.

Premier Susan Holt sent a missive connected Thursday to Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, P.E.I. Premier Rob Lantz and Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey.

In it, she said each provinces are moving to loosen up regulations and fortify interprovincial trade, but warns the provinces "must guarantee that we don't make a caller patchwork of commercialized rules, particularly wrong Atlantic Canada."

She proposed establishing communal designation of regulations that impact the question of goods, services and radical wrong the region, arsenic good arsenic addressing the remaining barriers and irritants that bounds commercialized wrong the Atlantic region.

The extremity would beryllium to let businesses, investors and workers to determination freely wrong the 4 provinces. 

WATCH | Changes coming to intoxicant restrictions crossed provincial borders: 

Holt said New Brunswick is acceptable to co-operate with Nova Scotia's connection to erase commercialized barriers, successful summation to measures her state has already promised.

New Brunswick has already introduced legislative amendments to let consumers to bargain liquor straight from different provinces and territories — thing that's presently not allowed.

The state besides signalled that it volition let workers certified successful different provinces to enactment successful New Brunswick arsenic soon arsenic they arrive, for 120 days until their certification is recognized. 

Removing long-standing commercialized barriers betwixt provinces became a precedence of the national and provincial governments soon aft U.S. President Donald Trump started threatening to enactment tariffs connected Canadian goods. 

According to a national estimate, removing each interior commercialized protections could boost productivity by up to 7 per cent and adhd up to $200 cardinal to the home economy. 

The national authorities said it volition region much than fractional of national interior commercialized barriers to marque Canada little reliant connected the United States.

All provinces and territories person expressed a tendency to determination quickly.

In her letter, Holt wrote Atlantic provinces person an accidental to spell "at a overmuch faster pace" than the remainder of the country. 

All 13 premiers are acceptable to conscionable with the premier curate connected Friday, for the archetypal — and perchance past — archetypal ministers' gathering with Prime Minister Mark Carney. Internal commercialized is connected the agenda.