While Canada has an open economy to the world, internally it is actually made up of many distinct markets, which is the result of having numerous barriers to trade across the territories. The presence of these non-geographic (or policy) barriers to trade between the provinces/territories stems from the differences in the development of various regulations (e.g., regulations governing the provision of goods or services), forms of licensing, standards, procurement rules, and regulations governing the provision of services. On average, these non-geographic policy barriers create a cost that is equal to 9% of the value of all internal sales within Canada; education, healthcare, retail, and professional services sectors may have a significantly higher percentage. The removal of the trade barriers that exist between provinces with small populations will negatively affect provincial competitiveness more than national overall competitiveness due to reduced scale, less competition and lower productivity.

According to economic studies, if these stringent internal barriers to trade were reduced, Canada’s long-run real GDP would increase by an estimated 7%, representing an increase of approximately C$210 billion. Increasing the productivity of firms by removing these barriers would, in turn, stimulate economic development primarily through enhanced productivity, more efficient allocation of resources, increased competition among firms and improved firm growth versus demand increases in the short term. Services liberalization is important; nearly four-fifths of potential GDP improvement is anticipated to be due to services, as they play a significant role in the larger economy (i.e., finance, transportation, and telecommunications).

Completing the full liberalisation of services will take time; however, there are a number of sectors where immediate implementation can provide significant benefits. One area that will be beneficial is the need to strengthen cooperative federalism through mutual recognition of regulations and credentials, as well as promoting transparency in the marketplace. A benefit of increased integration into Canada's internal markets is that it will provide Canada with a low-cost, powerful way to boost productivity, resiliency, and inclusive growth in an uncertain global marketplace.