Edmonton / Victoria ... Alberta and B.C. will promote their new agreement on trade, investment, and labour mobility as a model for the rest of Canada to follow at a meeting of ministers responsible for internal trade later this week in Halifax.

The B.C.-Alberta Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement is Canada's most comprehensive interprovincial trade agreement. It effectively creates a market of 7.5 million people and Canada's second largest economy by breaking down barriers between Alberta and BC.

"The B.C.-Alberta agreement is a model for internal trade reform in Canada," said Gary Mar, Alberta Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations. "Interprovincial trade barriers cost Canadian businesses and consumers billions each year. Replacing the 13 fragmented markets that currently exist in Canada, with a single Canadian market, would make our country more competitive internationally and enhance our ability to attract investment and skilled workers."

"With this agreement, we're sending a clear message to investors," said Colin Hansen, B.C.'s Minister of Economic Development. "The message is this: our region is serious about building a highly competitive place for people to invest, do business, work and live."

The B.C.-Alberta Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement was signed in April 2006. It commences on April 1, 2007, with a transition period to April 2009 before it comes into full effect. The agreement creates a more open, competitive economy where goods, services and investments move freely between the two provinces by:

• streamlining business registration and reporting requirements so that businesses registered in one province are automatically recognized in the other;
• enhancing labour mobility by recognizing occupational certifications of workers in both provinces;
• reconciling all existing and future standards and regulations that impede trade, investment and labour mobility;
• applying all its rules fully to all economic sectors, including energy and agriculture;
• providing even greater opportunities for the private sector to bid on government contracts; and,
• creating a clear, comprehensive and enforceable dispute avoidance and dispute resolution mechanism.

The Committee on Internal Trade meets September 7^th in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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Note to editors: More information on the B.C.-Alberta agreement is available at: http://www.iir.gov.ab.ca/trade_policy/interprovincial.asp or at http://www.ecdev.gov.bc.ca.

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