Two Time Zones, One Market

Herb Nodes can almost see the Alberta border from his home in Dawson Creek, B.C., located 20 minutes west of the line on Highway 49

Dec 1, 2007  

by Derek Sankey

Here, in the gently rolling Peace Country, there’s not much to tell the two provinces apart. Nonetheless, Nodes has hitherto run two construction companies, one on either side of the interprovincial border.

Since his clients are mainly in the transient oil and gas industry, he employs several licensed, certified tradespeople in each jurisdiction. Until recently, he couldn’t easily shift workers back and forth across the boundary because their certifications weren’t recognized in the other province, so he set up separate companies to deal with the differing regulations.

That was before the British Columbia-Alberta Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) came into effect earlier this year. “Now we have the ability to move licensed people from one province to the other and still have them validly certified,” says Nodes. “Any time that you allow a freedom of movement of people to follow a resource industry, it’s always a positive thing.”
Several years ago, one of his friends owned a trucking company in B.C. and bought another in Alberta, but he couldn’t truck loads across the border legally because of differing restrictions in each province. “He couldn’t even pick up a load, take it to the border, and pick it up with another truck because it was still moving across the border,” explains Nodes. “There were too many levels of government involved.” Today, that wouldn’t have been a problem for Nodes’ friend because TILMA has done away with cumbersome and slightly differing regulations to encourage the unfettered flow of goods, money and people between provinces.

Canada’s westernmost provinces have enjoyed a cosy relationship over the past few years. About $25 billion in goods and services crosses the B.C.-Alberta border each year and that relationship has contributed to the creation of an economic powerhouse that rivals and exceeds central Canada by some measures. While key sectors of Ontario’s and Quebec’s economies have been stagnant at best, Alberta, B.C. and, more recently, Saskatchewan have enjoyed strong growth. From 1996 to 2005, trade from Alberta to B.C. grew by 80% and from B.C. to Alberta by 104%, according to Statistics Canada.

The growing western economic partnership was solidified in April of 2006 when then premier Ralph Klein and B.C.’s Gordon Campbell officially signed TILMA, and again this year when it came into effect. The wide-ranging document flips the typical trade agreement on its head. Instead of a long, detailed list of what it covers, TILMA is designed to cover everything, with only a few noted exceptions. It’s being phased in until April 28, 2009. By then companies must be compliant or face serious penalties.

Economists say TILMA’s effects, haven’t been felt immediately because many industries are still reviewing the new rules to see exactly how they are affected. “Everything doesn’t just change instantaneously,” says Brett Gartner, senior economist with the Calgary-based Canada West Foundation, adding there won’t be any measurable impact until the agreement has binding enforcement. “It’s going to take time for companies to understand what it means and it’s probably not going to be any big dramatic shift,” concurs Nodes from his shop in Dawson Creek. Still, proactive companies are already taking advantage of TILMA’s benefits. Now, Nodes’ businesses have been brought together and he’s allowed to transfer certified trades workers back and forth as needed.

The agreement eliminates the need for any business to register and report in both provinces and also eliminates the local presence requirement, allowing companies to operate across the border to a combined market nearing eight million people without setting up a regional office or having to cut through cumbersome red tape. The governments estimate TILMA will save the equivalent of 1% of GDP, or $4 billion a year – that’s $500 per person – for western enterprises.

“There are a lot of instances where we’re going to have savings because instead of people wasting time, energy and resources on complying with these minutiae of regulations, they’re getting to provide better services, better goods at a lower price in a more effective manner,” says Jason Clemens, a resident scholar at the Fraser Institute, a free-enterprise think tank in Vancouver. He predicts costs will drop as companies save. The impact will be mostly felt in labour, energy, construction, transportation and logistics. By 2009, TILMA will also apply to the financial services industry and
government procurement.

It is already the law of the land. Though TILMA’s effects won’t be felt for some time – an informal poll of businesses throughout the two provinces found that companies are either unaware of it or haven’t yet determined the implications – the changes are already happening (and most apparent) in labour. Accreditation bodies in B.C. and Alberta for some health-care workers such as acupuncturists, chiropractors, occupational therapists, as well as wastewater operators have already ensured they mutually recognize each others’ slightly differing qualification requirements.

Pam Eales, president of the Dawson Creek and District Chamber of Commerce, is also the trades and apprenticeship co-ordinator at Northern Lights College. “A lot of our residents who live in Dawson Creek work in Alberta, plus we have Alberta residents who work in Dawson Creek,” she says. TILMA “has increased the flow back and forth…. It’s assisted us and made it easier.” Previously, workers would have to reapply to the different provincial body, whereas now there is mutual recognition of all employment qualifications between the provinces.

“It doesn’t make sense to have worked in B.C. for 20 years and to go to Edmonton or Calgary and have to re-certify,” says Clemens. Kathy Watson, the director of government affairs at the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, has worked with her counterparts in that sector of the construction industry and with provincial trade certification bodies to develop and expand mutual recognition of each other’s certification requirements. “The free flow of labour and the recognition of certification is just vitally important,” says Watson.

The CHBA is also mirroring efforts by B.C. organizations to develop new sub-certification levels within some trades, such as carpentry or plumbing, to recognize the skills of workers who haven’t achieved full journeyman status but have high-quality skills the industry needs badly in home building. “In B.C., they’ve already taken steps to make those adjustments to the apprenticeships programs,” Watson says.

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