As discussed in an earlier post, the Government of Canada is committed to strengthening trade across provincial borders. Many small businesses face similar, if not higher, barriers to expanding across Canada as they do when trying to expand internationally. Many businesses find the barriers to international trade (especially to the United States) easier to overcome than some of the barriers of inter-provincial trade. As a result, the government is working to develop a new framework that will reduce barriers to trade across Canada to help both SMEs and employees.
Reducing Internal Trade Barriers
By developing the Internal Trade Barriers Index, the Government will increase knowledge of the barriers to domestic trade to help identify priority areas for action. Potential priority areas include:
- The sale of regulated consumer goods across provincial and territorial boundaries.
- The coordination of regulated professions, specifically apprenticeship programs that have differing requirements across boundaries.
- Reduced red tape for business registration processes to limit costs/time for businesses to operate in multiple jurisdictions.
Assessments at the Federal and Provincials levels is continuing, and ministers are continuing to take assessments from key stakeholders including business owners and industry analysts. All ministers involved in the project have agreed to complete negotiations on modernizing the framework by March 2016. This sends a signal on the importance of modernizing the framework.
Leverage Government Funding to Support National and International Growth
In addition to reducing barriers, increasing uniformity, and reducing red tape, the Canadian government offers a variety of Canadian government funding programs to help SMEs make investments in their company that will lead to growth, innovation, and job creation. Mentor Works specializes in helping SMEs discover funding opportunities and align their projects with existing opportunities to optimize cash flow planning. If you are interested in learning about small business funding programs that can help with business expansion take a look at the government funding table, or contact one of our funding experts today to discuss your project.