Canada will have a truly national labour market by spring, in which doctors and plumbers, accountants and architects can follow jobs between provinces without being mired in red tape.
A labour mobility deal signed yesterday in Ottawa represents a victory for B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, who have together waged a lengthy battle against internal labour and trade barriers.
It also comes as the country posted its biggest month of job losses in more than two decades.
Mr. Campbell said the deal will help Canadians adapt to economic turbulence.
"Full labour mobility will allow Canadians to move freely, taking advantage of job opportunities and help address long-term skilled worker shortages," he said.
The deal signed by the provincial, territorial and federal trade ministers means that anyone qualified in a profession or other regulated occupation in one province will be able to practise in another province.
The deal has been in the works for months, if not years. It seals a pact reached last July between the premiers. That accord aimed to repair a 12-year-old agreement that was supposed to remove economic trade barriers between the provinces.
Frustrated with the lack of progress with the other provinces, B.C. and Alberta went ahead with their own labour mobility pact in 2006, which essentially recognized education credentials in each province, allowing workers to move freely across the B.C.-Alberta boundary and work in either province.
That deal allowed people like Edmonton architect Norbert Lemermeyer to pick up work in B.C. without months of paperwork and delays.
Seven years ago, it took Mr. Lemermeyer six months to get approvals so that he could work on a project in B.C. "I had to through all the rigmarole, fortunately my client happened to be patient."
Last year, he was one of the first architects to try out the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) with Alberta. "It took just six weeks and it's a lot less arduous," he said in an interview. He's now working on projects in Kamloops and in Metro Vancouver, where skilled labour shortages have delayed construction projects.
He said he is pleased to hear about the broader labour opportunities.
"This is TILMA writ large," said Janice Schroeder, spokeswoman for Alberta employment and immigration.
"There is a fair bit of work left to do, but the ministers are saying, 'We're going to do it.'"
The TILMA agreement has critics, who argue that such deals can restrict governments' ability to protect health and the environment. It's also unclear how the deal will apply in areas where there are significant differences in local practices, such as forestry.
Some professional organizations question how such a deal will work, as well.
The Canadian Medical Association, in a report last month, said it supports labour mobility generally, but raised several questions about what the deal will mean in practice.
Some of its concerns highlight how many details remain to be worked out before the April 1 change. The CMA paper asks, for example, how provinces will deal with doctors working on restricted licences and whether it will undermine existing certification standards.
Dozens of classifications of workers currently need to re-qualify when they cross provincial boundaries for work. British Columbia has more than 250 occupations that are regulated, from chartered accountants to lifeguards, midwives and welders.
