by Joseph Maloney, International Vice-President of Canada

The Western premiers may be making all the noise about removing interprovincial trade barriers, but they could take a few pages out of what the Atlantic provinces are actually doing about it.

Around the end of this month, we are told, Industry Canada will be issuing a discussion paper on the removal of intra-Canadian trade barriers as a runup to new talks concerning the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) that was signed between the federal government and the provinces in 1995.

The Council of Atlantic Premiers and the Atlantic Workforce Partnership have been working on turning free interprovincial trade into policy. A process has already begun that will see apprenticeship training for a number of trades in the four Atlantic provinces harmonized by 2017. Nova Scotia is also in talks with Alberta government to harmonize apprenticeships across the two jurisdictions.

This effort is aimed at unraveling the web of trade restraints that prevent skilled workers from the Atlantic from moving to other provinces for temporary work. As Canada's leading supplier of skilled workers in the Boilermaker trade, our union faces interprovincial barriers every day that prevent our members from working, and prevent employers from accessing a readily available supply of Canadians with the skills they need. We find it ironic that temporary foreign workers can have an easier time getting work than Canadians who want to work in another province.

The premiers had it right when they identified differences in apprenticeship systems as one of the main barriers to the movement of skilled workers across the country. A Boilermaker in New Brunswick may have all the skills needed to work in Alberta, but can be prevented from doing so because Alberta doesn't recognize New Brunswick's accreditation.

This apprenticeship harmonization is the result of collaboration between the Atlantic Canada premiers and the federal government. It is funded at the provincial and federal level, and everyone stands to gain from the investment.

Atlantic Canadians already understand this - they live, work, shop, and play across jurisdictions. Some live in Moncton and are employed in Wabush, commute daily from Sackville to Amherst, or cross the bridge from Port Elgin to Borden for a weekend getaway.

The work on apprenticeship is an important first step, but there are many other barriers that have to come down if we can hope to defeat a problem that is costing the Canadian economy some $49 billion annually.

In our own case, different provincial health and safety regulations also play a big part in preventing the movement of skilled workers between provinces. All ten provinces have health and safety laws that are aimed at the same laudable goal. The workers who are covered by this legislation see no practical difference whatsoever. Yet a Boilermaker from Newfoundland must take additional training in health and safety - training which is both redundant and expensive - in order to work in Saskatchewan.

Another significant barrier is in certification requirements. While there is a national Red Seal program, which is supposed to guarantee that someone trained in one province can work in another, there is a labyrinth of provincial rules and regulations that requires some welders to be certified and tested in each province before being allowed to work there.

These are examples of the trade issues our own members face. Other occupations and industries have their unique barriers as well. Taken together, these impediments to trade create a daunting mountain of problems to overcome.

We in the Boilermakers union advocate extending the work that the Atlantic premiers have done. We believe governments need to do more to include representatives from industry, labour and consumers in their discussions. There are so many barriers and impediments that a solution demands the full participation of those who are affected.

In our own trade, we often form working groups composed of representatives from business, government and labour to discuss issues and find solutions. Why not extend this co-operation to finding solutions to interprovincial trade barriers?

While we applaud the efforts of the Atlantic premiers, we can't solve the problems of interprovincial trade behind closed doors. It's an issue that's too important to be left to the politicians alone.