OTTAWA, ON (March 3, 2026):
Why is it often easier to move goods, services, and professional credentials across borders in the European Union than across provincial boundaries in Canada?
In The single market myth: How Ottawa and the provinces can finally dismantle Canada’s costly internal trade barriers, author Paul Daly and MLI Senior Fellow Mark Mancini map out a legal path toward greater Canadian economic integration and identify the various obstacles that must be overcome.
Daly and Mancini propose reforms through the constitutional pathway of federal-provincial inter-delegation. The authors explain that this would entail the creation of a joint federal-provincial economic integration agency to coordinate across the provinces, empowered to:
• Mandate mutual recognition of goods, services, and qualifications across the provinces.
• Develop a national standard for areas where mutual recognition is insufficient.
• Identify and remove unnecessary regulatory barriers.
Daly and Mancini explain how, in a decentralized federation, regulatory fragmentation inevitably imposes costs on citizens and businesses across provincial lines. They argue that a constitutionally viable economic integration agency could help manage the unavoidable collisions between overlapping regulations without sacrificing provincial autonomy.
“What we propose is as radical a vision of economic integration in Canada as the current constitutional framework permits,” note Daly and Mancini.
“The Fathers of Confederation envisaged an economic union more like the contemporary European Union than contemporary Canada. Their vision has, so far, not borne fruit.”
To learn more, read the full paper here:
Paul Daly is the university research chair in Administrative Law and Governance at the University of Ottawa.
Mark Mancini is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia, Peter A. Allard School of Law, and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute tutor and evaluation consultant with extensive experience assessing international development and foreign aid programs.
For further information, media are invited to contact:
Skander Belouizdad
Communications Officer
(613) 482-8327 x111
Skander.belouizdad@macdonaldlaurier.ca
