Alberta’s government has tabled legislation — Bill 21, the Interprovincial Trade Mutual Recognition Act — to ease regulations and barriers to more easily enable the sale of some goods from other provinces.

It’s part of a commitment Alberta made with its provincial and federal counterparts in signing an interprovincial free trade pact in November.

That trade accord, which is supposed to take effect this summer, would see provinces recognize each other’s regulations for most consumer and capital products to avoid duplicative inspections and requirements.

The agreement doesn’t apply to the sale of alcohol, cannabis, food, live animals, tobacco or plants, and it lets provinces maintain certain restrictions on items for health and safety reasons.

Alberta is keeping its own rules in place for several products, including pesticides, plumbing equipment and safety helmets.

Another Alberta exemption is for gift cards, which the province requires to have no expiry date. The province retains the right to add or remove items from the list of goods and they must still meet Alberta rules.

Jobs and Economy Minister Joseph Schow said that despite the limitations, he expects the new rules will have a major economic effect for the province.

“This is a great news story for small- and medium-sized businesses,” he said. “These are mom and pop shops, in some cases, where they don’t have a lot of staff, and the last thing they want to be dealing with is cumbersome regulation.”

9:13
Provinces, territories sign interprovincial trade deal

He added that for years in Canada, it has sometimes been easier for businesses to sell products internationally rather than to other provinces.

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Schow said by eliminating red tape, businesses will be able to expand and access new markets without having to bring on more staff, or hire lawyers or consultants to deal with regulations.

Heather Thomson at the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce said at the government news conference that having consistency across the country will open doors for businesses and allow them to scale up.

“This means more time spent on hiring, innovating and selling,” she said. “It gives Alberta businesses the competitive edge that they need to succeed, not just here, but across the entire country.”

Government officials told reporters before the bill was tabled that manufacturers in industries such as oil and gas, lumber and logging and fertilizer producers will likely see the most positive impact once the pact takes effect.

Provinces such as Ontario and British Columbia have already introduced similar pieces of legislation to implement the commitments in November’s agreement.

5:33
Food and alcohol excluded in interprovincial trade agreement

Alberta officials told reporters that the government purposely waited longer so it could study and learn from what other provinces did.

Thursday’s bill also sets out the process for future mutual recognition agreements between provinces to be implemented.

Schow didn’t provide specifics about what future deals he’d like to ink, noting only that the legislation allows the government to be nimble and make changes without reconvening the legislature as needed.

Opposition NDP jobs critic Rhiannon Hoyle said the legislation is good news for businesses and the economy, but she would have like to have seen it sooner, given long-standing business interest in seeing trade barriers removed.

— More to come…

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

The Ford government will table its budget on Thursday afternoon, a financial blueprint expected to be printed with its fair share of red ink as the finance minister tells Ontarians to prepare for “tougher times” ahead.

The annual financial plan will outline the government’s expectations for economic growth and debt, as well as offer insights into the cost of its policies, the housing market and how Crown corporations like the LCBO are managing.

In a few brief comments as he bought the tie he will wear to present the budget, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy acknowledged his plan comes as people struggle.

“It’s tough times for people,” he said. “People are hurting, the cost of everything is very high. That’s why we’ve been focused on affordability, putting more money back into people’s pockets.”

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Bethlenfalvy’s comments echoed those he made earlier this month in a speech revealing the date of the budget.

“The world has changed, and Ontario must be ready for what change may bring, even if that means being prepared for tougher times,” he said during that event.

“As a government, we cannot eliminate uncertainty, but we can mitigate risks with a responsible, balanced fiscal approach that supports public services and infrastructure while maintaining flexibility.”

In that speech, he twice mentioned delivering government programs “efficiently and sustainably,” words that are sometimes used by politicians to signal belt tightening.

The province’s deficit, in the most recent fiscal update earlier this year, stood at $13.4 billion. Bethlenfalvy has been silent on whether the path to balance remains the same as his plan in last year’s budget to get into the black in 2027-28.

As it normally does in the run-up to the budget, the government has already pre-announced several major policies.

A one-year cut to the sales tax on all new homes was unveiled Wednesday, while a cap on the resale price of tickets to concerts and sports games will also be included in the document.

There’s also going to be $325 million for primary care in a budget that will be passed through legislation that also clamps down on transparency rules.

The budget will be tabled in the house around 4 p.m.

— with files from The Canadian Press

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While the war in Iran has sent gasoline prices soaring around the world, there are growing concerns about how the spike in the cost of other fuels could also affect consumers and the broader economy.

In Canada, the average price of diesel has surged to nearly $2.30 per litre — more than 50 per cent higher than just three months ago.

“It’s unprecedented. We’ve never seen anything like this in the oil market or the refined products market and it’s getting worse,” said Calgary-based petroleum industry analyst Richard Masson.

“The tankers that left four weeks ago just before the war started are just starting to unload at their destinations,” he continued.

“It takes three to four weeks to get where they’re going, but over the last four weeks there have been no tankers leaving out of the Strait of Hormuz.

“So over the next few weeks, places that need those fuels aren’t going to be getting them.”

Masson said the refined products market is experiencing prices like $200 a barrel for diesel fuel.

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“And more than that, countries like China have banned exports of refined products. So there are places like California, that depend on refined products coming from China because they’ve had many refineries shut down, who are now scrambling to find replacements for their diesel, for their gasoline.

“The whole global market right now is totally upset, and people are still trying to understand what it all means.”

Small business owners in Alberta are also waiting to see what happens, depending on how long the war drags on.

“Well, the price is going to affect freight and delivery, for sure,” said Ernie Tsu of the Alberta Hospitality Association, who is also owner of the Trolley 5 Brewpub in Calgary.

“We haven’t seen it come down yet from the major suppliers. I’m sure it’s going to,” said Tsu, who admits restaurant menu prices will need to increase if freight and delivery charges increase.

However, Tsu said a lot of restaurants are working with local farmers in an effort to keep transportation costs down and still provide excellent products and that helps “massively.”

Masson said if diesel prices get too high, it could cause the entire supply chain to break down.

“There’s two parts to that. One is the price gets higher for transportation because of the diesel cost and so that gets transmitted through to prices,” said Masson.

“The other is people just can’t get hold of the product physically and so they stop shipping things and so the supply chains start to break down.

“I’m seeing more and more talk about supply chains breaking down like happened during COVID.”

While the members of the International Energy Agency recently agreed to release hundreds of millions of oil from their strategic emergency reserves in an effort to combat a possible shortage of Middle East oil, Masson said it may not help prevent a shortage of diesel, because it’s not the right kind of oil.

“The Middle East produces kind of a medium-sour crude, and that crude goes into refineries and makes a larger proportion of diesel and a smaller proportion of gasoline.

“When that crude goes missing, it affects the diesel supply more and this is the challenge because not all crude oil is the same.”

While much of the oil produced in Canada is suitable for making diesel, Masson said most of the recent increase in U.S. production is lighter oil obtained through fracking, and is not suitable for making diesel.

“We have this real problem where not only is there a smaller supply of crude, but it’s not the right kinds of crude in the right refineries to keep production of things like diesel going at the rate we need — and of course, the economy depends on diesel,” said Masson.

“So we we have to find a way to adjust our consumption and the way we do that is by price. So the higher the price goes, more people will stop using it and only the best uses will happen.

“This is what’s going to happen over the coming weeks as this (crisis) deepens.”

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Potential buyers across Ontario are poised to receive a significant tax discount on newly-built homes, but only for a limited time, Global News has learned, as the Ford government looks to boost a sector struggling with a slump in sales.

As part of his spring budget, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy is expected to announce that the provincial portion of the harmonized sales tax will be removed for anyone buying a newly-constructed home, rewriting a policy the government introduced just months ago.

The original version of the plan, introduced during the fall economic statement, allocated $470 million over three years to give first-time Ontario homebuyers a tax break on new homes.

Ontario’s pledge to waive its portion of the HST came shortly after a similar announcement by the federal government — allowing first-time homebuyers to save up to $130,000 on a new home under $1 million, and lower rebates for homes costing up to $1.5 million.

But the offer failed to ignite the market, forcing the government to take a second pass at the policy, and offer the discount to a wider swath of purchasers.

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Sources told Global News there has been an internal struggle over the details of the revised policy. While the premier wanted the discount to run for a three-year period, the government had concerns that buyers could wait on the sidelines, effectively watering down the urgency of the plan.

Instead, sources said, the government is expected to offer a full discount on the provincial portion of the HST for all homebuyers for a one-year period, creating instant demand in the market.

Neither the Finance Minister, Housing Minister or Premier would confirm or deny the plan — but acknowledged they were looking to invigorate the sector.

“We’re going to give a real boost to the building and construction trade and put in more opportunity for people to buy a home,” Ford indicated before heading into caucus meeting Tuesday.

His finance minister, Peter Bethlenfalvy, would not be drawn on the details but emphasized the need to boost housing.

“I think affordability is an important issue for many people in Ontario who dream  of owning a home,” he said on Tuesday.

“It’s also important for the construction industry — when nothing’s getting built, particularly three or four years from now — that there’s some stimulus to the market to support our construction workers and the industry.”

Asked about the one-year limit on the plan, Housing Minister Rob Flack said Global News knows “more about it than me, it appears.”

Ford said people should wait to “see how our announcement goes.”

Ontario’s efforts to build 1.5 million homes by 2031 have fallen flat — there were just 62,561 housing starts in 2025 — leading to calls for additional government intervention to stimulate the market.

Development industry sources told Global News the government had indicated to them that waiving tax for all new homes could cost the treasury $2 billion, substantially more than the $470 million for limiting it to first-time homebuyers.

The additional cost would come at a time when the finance minister’s budget has ballooned to a record $236 billion, with a $13.4-billion deficit and a provincial debt that’s set to cross the half-a-trillion-dollar threshold in 2027.

The finance minister will table the budget on March 26.

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A new poll finds there is growing support for a proposal to lower an Old Age Security (OAS) threshold for some Canadians in order to help reduce the federal government’s deficit.

Seventy-three per cent of Canadians polled this month said they support such a move, which would effectively trim back Old Age Security from higher income tiers, according to Generation Squeeze’s research poll.

Although nearly three quarters of respondents said they supported this proposal, that was on the condition that the savings are used to eliminate seniors’ poverty and reduce living costs for younger generations, the polling found.

Old Age Security is one of the most costly contributors to Ottawa’s roughly $78 billion projected deficit, according to Generation Squeeze, a Canadian think tank advocacy group.

Generation Squeeze says by lowering the current income threshold for when OAS benefits begin to gradually phase out — for couples, from $185,000 down to $100,000 —  Ottawa could save up to $7 billion annually.

Old Age Security is a federal benefit available to Canadian seniors aged 65 and older, with certain monthly amounts paid based on income, age and residency.

However, it gives hundreds of dollars a month to seniors with household incomes over $100,000 per year, which has spurred increasing calls from advocates like Generation Squeeze to claw that back from higher income tiers.

Currently, the government of Canada lists those aged 65 to 74 as eligible to receive $742.31 maximum a month if their annual net world income is less than $148,451. Those aged 75 and above are eligible to receive $816.54 maximum a month if their annual net world income is less than $154,196.

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The amounts depend on “age, income, and the number of years you have lived in Canada.”

That is in addition to money individuals are eligible for from the Canada Pension Plan, or from personal or employer retirement savings plans. Lower-income seniors can also get the Guaranteed Income Supplement.

0:42
OAS and CPP payments to roll out Wednesday, here are the amounts

Approximately six in 10 respondents said they would support lowering the threshold even further to $81,000 or less. By doing so, Generation Squeeze says the annual savings would rise to roughly $13 billion.

The Generation Squeeze opinion poll on OAS reform was conducted in partnership with Research Co. from March 12 to March 14, 2026, and about 1,000 Canadians participated.

Generation Squeeze said in a release that based on their findings, only four per cent of seniors are excluded from OAS because their incomes are too high.

By reducing the income threshold for OAS clawbacks as proposed, Generation Squeeze says the top-earning 20 per cent of seniors that receive the payments would see their benefits shrink, and by an average of $3,000 or less per person each year.

4:12
Is it time to revamp Canada’s Old Age Security program?

The Iran war is the latest curveball for Canadians trying to keep up with the higher cost of living as spiking oil prices have translated into rising costs at the gas pump. Businesses faced with these higher fuel costs are also being pressured and may have to raise prices charged to consumers as a result, including for groceries.

Prior to the war, U.S. tariffs and trade war uncertainty have led business owners to pause hiring plans, leading to a difficult job market in Canada.

The inflation spike since the pandemic combined with higher interest rates have pressured Canadians to cut spending wherever possible to make ends meet.

“Canadians have spoken – clearly and consistently. Prime Minister Mark Carney should use that support to fix and modernize the most expensive line in his budget – and deliver a once-in-a-generation improvement in affordability for young and old alike,” said Generation Squeeze.

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Canadian officials spoke to Trump administration representatives about a proposed revival of part of the canceled Keystone XL oil pipeline in a meeting in Houston this week, Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said Tuesday.

The project proposed by Calgary-based pipeline company South Bow and ‌its U.S. partner Bridger Pipeline – which could increase Canada’s crude exports to the U.S. by more than 12 per cent ⁠if it goes ahead – was one of the ‌topics Hodgson said he and Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S., Mark Wiseman, discussed with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and U.S. Secretary of the ⁠Interior Doug Burgum.

Canada is framing the prospect of a new cross-border oil pipeline as a way it ‌can help the U.S. achieve energy security even as the war in Iran disrupts supplies and raises prices for consumers, Hodgson ⁠said in an interview at the ‌CERAWeek by S&P Global conference.

“Yes, (the U.S.) are the largest producer of oil in the world, they’re at 12-13 million barrels per day — but they consume 20,” Hodgson said. “And they understand that Canada provides about 63 per cent of that difference.”

1:56
Trump wants Keystone XL pipeline built ‘now’ — but is there industry appetite?

President Donald Trump’s tariff wars and annexation threats have strained relations with Canada. But Trump has also repeatedly called for lower oil prices ‌and many U.S. refiners depend on the roughly 4.4 million bpd of exports that Canada sends south of the border.

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Hodgson declined ⁠to say whether the Trump administration has indicated that it will support the South Bow/Bridger project or make any attempt to fast-track the U.S. regulatory approvals that are required.

“I would say they (Wright and Burgum) are thoughtfully looking at all of the options to make ​sure the world has the oil it needs to function,” Hodgson said.

The White House ​did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Hodgson said he also made it clear ‌during the meeting that Canada is aggressively working to expand its oil exports to non-U.S. markets by completing a planned 300,000 bpd expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline that runs from ⁠Alberta to the Pacific Coast.

Prime Minister Mark ‌Carney has been traveling the globe courting new customers for Canadian energy in an effort ‌to reduce the country’s reliance on ​the U.S. market. “What we need to do, as the Prime ⁠Minister has ⁠said, is not sell less to the United States.

We need to sell more to other people,” Hodgson ​said.

4:13
Developer pulls plug on Keystone XL pipeline

The federal minimum wage in Canada is set to go up.

The federal minimum wage will rise from the current $17.75 to $18.15 an hour, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) said Tuesday in a press release.

This will apply to all workers in federally regulated industries such as air transportation, banking, most federal Crown corporations, ports and telecommunication, among others.

2:19
Business Matters: Canada’s annual inflation rate falls to 1.8% in February

The new minimum wage will represent a 21 per cent increase compared to 2021, the government said.

The federal minimum wage is indexed to inflation, which rose by 2.1 per cent in 2025.

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“An employee should be paid at least the federal minimum wage. If the minimum wage of the province or territory where the employee usually works is higher than the federal minimum wage, the employer is to pay the higher minimum wage,” ESDC says on its website.

Starting April 1, all employers in federally regulated private sectors will be required to adjust their payrolls accordingly.

After April 1, Yukon ($18.51) and Nunavut ($19.75) will have minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage, while British Columbia’s minimum wage is set to rise to $18.25 in June.

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Gas prices remain high in the Lower Mainland and there are concerns about other potential consumer impactsas conflict in the U.S.-Israel war against Iran continues.

The cost of gas was sitting around $2.14 per litre on Monday, with similar prices seen around the region on Sunday and late last week.

As the war continues to put pressure on the pumps, experts say that food prices could also increase by the end of April.

“If oil remains at around say $100 a barrel, we’re likely going to see the average family of four spend anywhere between 400 and $600 more on food for the entire year because of the attacks in Iran,” said Sylvain Charlebois, a professor at the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.

The hardest hit items are expected to be meat, dairy, produce and seafood as they have to be transported in refrigerated trucks that require more energy.

Charlebois also warned that another price hike could be coming later this year.

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“Right now you may be looking at a double whammy, so on the one side you have energy costs pushing prices higher, but don’t forget with fertilizers with yields being impacted, markets could start to push commodity prices higher mid-year for example,” he said.

“We could see input costs go up for manufacturers, so that would be that double whammy you would see later in the year.”

2:16
Metro Vancouver gas prices soaring amid Middle East conflict

Small businesses across B.C. say they are also feeling the impact of rising fuel costs.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) said that so far, many owners have been absorbing the costs.

“Everything from your local pizzeria and the cost it takes for them to deliver that pizza to your home, your local plumber, electrician, every service call just went up in cost,” said Kalith Nanayakkara, CFIB’s senior policy analyst for B.C. said.

“Small businesses who are already operating on very thin margins will reach a point where they’re forced to pass those costs on to consumers.”

To support the economy. the CFIB wants the B.C. and Canadian governments to move more quickly to develop Canada’s domestic energy supply.

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