Premiers meet with PM Mark Carney as several call for end to internal trade barriers

By Canadian Press on March 21, 2025.

OTTAWA — Ontario Premier Doug Ford says premiers agreed at a meeting Friday with Prime Minister Mark Carney on the need to cut red tape and “streamline approvals to get big things built faster” — though not all are ready to quash interprovincial trade barriers.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ford said his province and Nova Scotia are moving ahead with legislation to remove interprovincial trade barriers.

Asked by reporters if all premiers are on board with that effort, Ford said “one or two” are not.

“As we move forward across the country, eventually everyone’s gonna hop on. They’ll have no choice to hop on board,” Ford said. “Not forced, but automatically there’ll be so much pressure within their territory or their province.”

Carney met with the premiers to discuss the federal government’s response to Chinese and U.S. tariffs.

In a social media post after the meeting, Carney said that “in the face of this trade crisis, the premiers and I are going to build one resilient, united Canadian economy.”

Ahead of the meeting, several of Canada’s premiers called for the elimination of interprovincial trade barriers.

In a social media post Friday evening, Ford said the premiers agreed on the need to “get big things built faster” and on unleashing the “enormous economic potential” of the Ring of Fire.

The Ring of Fire is a region about 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ont. that contains massive deposits of critical minerals like nickel, copper, platinum and cobalt that could be worth tens of billions of dollars.

“The prime minister answered Ontario’s long-standing call and agreed to end needless duplication by recognizing provincial environmental assessment processes for nation-building projects,” Ford said. “This will let us get shovels in the ground years sooner.”

Ford said before the meeting that “we need a united Canada.” He said U.S. President Donald Trump doesn’t respect weakness and Canada needs to unite and “work hard” to end Trump’s trade war. He said the provinces should start dismantling interprovincial trade barriers now.

Ford told reporters that Carney is an “extremely bright business person” who “gets it” and “wants to get it done.”

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Canada is fighting a trade war on two fronts and needs a solid economic plan. He joked that the whole country can unify behind the Winnipeg Jets.

“America is our closest neighbour and a really close ally so whatever we do with the PRC (People’s Republic of China) also has to make sense in terms of the engagement that we have with the U.S.,” he said.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who attended the meeting virtually, said Thursday that his priority for the meeting with Carney is to discuss China’s tariffs on Canadian canola oil and meal.

Beijing imposed the tariffs in response to Canada’s levies on Chinese-made electric vehicles, steel and aluminum.

“(This is) the most urgent and the most immediate (tariff) that needs action,” Moe told reporters in Regina. “I don’t know if we can solve it but we ought to try, and I would ask the prime minister to make that phone call (to China) before you go to an election.”

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt said she was excited to be talking about ways to “blow up” interprovincial trade barriers.

She said Canada’s leaders need to continue engaging with the threat of tariffs during the coming federal election, especially with Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, which are expected to land on April 2.

“We can’t drop the ball during this critical time,” she said.

Moe, B.C. Premier David Eby, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith attended the meeting virtually.

The meeting is taking place just days before Carney is expected to launch a federal election campaign that would send Canadians to the polls as soon as April 28.

Carney did not stop to speak with reporters on his way into the meeting. He walked in with Minister of International Trade and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc and Minister of Transport and Internal Trade Chrystia Freeland.

In his opening remarks, Carney thanked the premiers for fighting for Canada. He said the meeting was about “catalyzing investment,” ensuring that Canadians can work anywhere in Canada and allowing goods to move freely across the country.

“It’s a time where we want to take risk,” Carney said. “We have to make investments and we have to do things that we hadn’t imagined possible before at a speed that we haven’t moved before.”

None of the premiers endorsed a federal party leader and most said they’d be happy to work with any prime minister chosen by Canadians.

Holt said that while she hasn’t met Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, she thought Carney would be a good negotiator with Trump due to his intelligence and “passion” for Canada.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, Métis National Council President Victoria Pruden and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed met with Carney virtually ahead of Friday’s meeting.

In an interview after the meeting, Woodhouse Nepinak said they discussed the “Team Canada approach” and insisted that First Nations cannot be left out of key decisions on how the country moves forward.

In a social media post Friday, Carney said building a stronger Canada “can only happen in full partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis.”

“Thank you to the leaders of the National Indigenous Organizations for a productive and wide-ranging discussion today,” Carney said. “It is the first of many.”

Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai said before the meeting that the Arctic has “become a focus” and he wants to see all political parties commit to Canada’s North.

Before the meeting, Quebec Premier François Legault told reporters that the premiers must discuss ways to protect workers from Trump’s trade war.

He said Canada’s counter-tariffs must be crafted to ensure they maximize negative effects on American businesses while minimizing impacts on Canadian businesses. He said U.S. tariffs are hurting many Quebec companies already.

Legault said he’s open to pipeline projects and that public opinion on such projects has shifted due to the trade war, but he insisted there must be “social acceptance” in Quebec before going forward.

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s final meetings with premiers, which took place before Carney was sworn in on March 14, focused on U.S. tariffs.

Trump’s trade war escalated last week when Washington imposed 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports entering the country, prompting Canada to expand its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.

Trump also has repeatedly called for Canada to become a U.S. state.

— With files from Anja Karadeglija, Alessia Passafiume and Allison Jones in Toronto