What do interprovincial trade barriers mean for Canadian businesses and what's changing? In this episode of Accounting for the Future, host Anne-Marie Henson sits down with Jonathan (Jono) Kalles, Vice President of McMillan Vantage and former advisor to the Prime Minister, to unpack the implications of Bill C-5 and how the interprovincial trade landscape is evolving in Canada.

From the removal of federal exceptions under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement to the complexities of provincial cooperation, they explore the economic, regulatory, and strategic shifts underway. Hear practical insights for finance leaders navigating the ripple effects of new trade policies and find out what your organization can do now to stay ahead.

What you'll hear in this episode:

[02:28] What are interprovincial trade barriers in Canada?

[05:35] What does Bill C-5 mean for Canadian companies?

[08:15] Removing the 53 federal exceptions

[10:25] Federal vs. provincial role in cutting red tape

[14:45] Industries most impacted

[17:31] How U.S. trade pressures are sparking policy shifts

[18:47] Controversy and risks around Bill C-5

[25:28] Lessons for CFOs and finance leaders

[29:21] How to stay up to date

Mentioned:

Anne-Marie Henson: https://www.bdo.ca/our-people/anne-marie-henson

Jonathan Kalles: https://mcmillanvantage.com/team/jonathan-kalles/

BDO Canada: https://www.bdo.ca/

Quotes:

"We are in a new reality where tariffs, red tape, and trade in general are being reassessed. We're thinking about them differently and, obviously, the biggest reason is Donald Trump."

"I think everybody can say there is just too much red tape, there is too much regulation in Canada, and the goal of this is to unleash a lot of our natural resources—projects that go, really, across the country."

"I will throw this out right now—the majority of these barriers remain between provinces, and they're not at the federal level. So there's still a lot of red tape to be cut."

"When you live in a world of either free trade or a more tariffed type of trade—and that could be international amongst countries, but it's true within Canada, as well—it's trying to balance out how do you protect your local economy, your local workers, how to incentivize buying local, while at the same time opening up markets and having, in a sense, more people to trade with, more people to sell to."

"For a lot of clients that I've worked with and companies that I speak to, they often talk about the fact that it's easier to export north-south than it has been to export east-west or west-east."

"As they say, 'necessity is the mother of all invention'… All of the tariffs that [President Donald Trump] imposed, it has forced us to reckon with some of our own barriers that we could be getting rid of and making life easier and actually more prosperous within Canada."