The Liberals have tabled legislation aimed at eliminating interprovincial trade barriers and expediting "nation-building projects."Mark Carney said the move was "decades in the making.". During a press conference on Friday, the prime minister explained that the One Canadian Economy bill consisted of two main components, the first being the tearing down of "the barriers that have held our country back for far too long.""We are aligning federal rules and regulations with those from the provinces and territories, helping to create one market, not 13," he said. "That will allow more goods, more services to be transported, sold, and bought across our nation without restriction, generating new opportunities for Canadian businesses and lowering costs for Canadian consumers.".Shifting to the second component, Carney lamented that while it used to be easy to complete nation-building projects, "in recent decades, it's become too difficult.""For too long, when federal agencies have examined a new project, their immediate question has been 'why?'," he added. "With this bill, we will instead ask ourselves, 'how?'.".Carney went on to note that while projects that meet all the relevant criteria will be approved by the Major Project Office within two years, "there must be meaningful consultation with indigenous peoples ... both during the process of determining which projects are in the national interest, and in the development of the rigorous conditions for each of those projects."He made it clear that the purpose of the legislation is to "enhance Canada's prosperity, national security, economic security, and national autonomy, while protecting the environment and upholding the rights of indigenous peoples.""We are building new trade relationships around the world," Carney added. "Those new relationships will make us more resilient, but by building at home, we will truly make Canada strong. That's what first ministers unanimously committed to in Saskatoon on Monday.".When asked about pipelines — which Quebec has vocally opposed — Carney said the federal government "will not impose a project on a province."He added that while the government will "do everything to get [the bill] passed before the summer," but noted that, "if parliament needs to sit longer, it should sit longer in order to get it passed."
