Following the announcement last week of the provincial government's Protecting Ontario Through Free Trade Within Canada Act, local chambers of commerce are celebrating the move to remove trade barriers within the country.
Executive Director of the Huron Chamber of Commerce Colin Carmichael says the new bill helps Ontario businesses be more competitive in a variety of ways by removing many old measures that have made it harder on businesses to do so previously.
"They make it more difficult for Ontario businesses to attract workers from other provinces, they make it more difficult for Ontario products to be sold in other provinces and they make it difficult to just ship things over provincial borders, in some cases," Carmichael explained.
Carmichael notes that a key part of the bill aims to make it easier for skilled workers to move more freely between Ontario and other provinces, making it easier to attract employees. He says that's a win-win for workers and employers, especially in an area like Huron County that traditionally falls in a zone with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the province.
"Without there being big hurdles and red tape and hoops to jump through, particularly in the regulated professions, this will be a positive. Particularly in healthcare, it would be the main one, where nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals, it's very difficult right now to move across provincial borders," said Carmichael.
Overall, Carmichael says the chamber and other chambers across Canada are welcoming anything that helps make doing business easier for local businesses and workers nationwide.
"Chambers of commerce across the country, really, have been arguing for years for these barriers to be removed. The trade dispute with the United States has kind of provided the opportunity for the provincial governments to act on this and to do what they can to help our local businesses be more successful," added Carmichael.
You can learn more about the Protecting Ontario Through Free Trade Within Canada Act here: https://huronchamber.ca/ontario-introduces-free-trade-legislation-signals-broad-economic-strategy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ontario-introduces-free-trade-legislation-signals-broad-economic-strategy