84 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016
IN-HOUSE ADVISOR
Will the Whitehorse agreement
on interprovincial trade turn
out to be truly 'groundbreaking'?
Or will a constitutional reference
at the Supreme Court of Canada
come along that takes down
provincial regimes?
BY ANTHONY DAVIS ILLUSTRATION BY MARTA ANTELO
All for One,
One for All?
FOLLOWING THE JULY 22 ANNOUNCEMENT at the Council of the Federation
summit in Whitehorse that Canada's Premiers had reached a "groundbreaking" deal on
interprovincial trade, a nagging question lingered among those most concerned about
Canada's tangle of domestic trade barriers: where were the feds?
How, they wondered, can the provinces possibly deliver an effective new trade deal to Cana-
dian businesses in affected sectors, such as the beer and construction industries, without them?
Some observers say they can't. And that would put a quick end to the hopes of some companies
looking to expand, while protecting the interests of entrenched incumbents.
In the end, though, it may not be the premiers and the Prime Minister who take the next
significant step to tear down Canada's internal trade barriers, but a beer-loving retired steel-
worker named Gerard Comeau from New Brunswick. e beer industry, according to free
trade proponents, is one that is plagued by a tangle of policies and regulations designed to
protect provincial government beer monopolies.
Comeau was ticketed for violating a section of New Brunswick's Liquor Control Act in 2012
for buying the equivalent of 14 cases of beer and some spirits in Québec (where they are sig-
nificantly cheaper) and driving them to his home in Tracadie, NB. Section 134(b) limits the
individual importation of beer into New Brunswick from other provinces to just 12 pints. Co-
meau pleaded not guilty, arguing the ticket violated the constitutional guarantee under s. 121
of free trade between provinces. On April 19, a provincial court judge agreed, striking down s.
134(b) and dismissing the charge against Comeau.
