A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives argues that current federal and provincial plans to dismantle inter-provincial trade and labour-mobility barriers will deliver far smaller economic benefits than Ottawa and the premiers have suggested. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Internal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland have promoted the initiative as a response to U.S. tariff threats, citing studies that liken internal frictions to a 7 per cent tariff and forecast as much as $200 billion in additional output if the barriers disappear. The CCPA study, released 7 July ahead of this week’s internal trade ministers’ meeting in Quebec City, counters that politicians have identified only a handful of overlapping rules whose removal would meaningfully affect business costs. The left-leaning think tank calls the push “political theatre,” warning that scrapping the regulations will neither offset the recently imposed 145 per cent U.S. tariff on Canadian goods nor materially boost growth. It recommends focusing instead on broader productivity measures and targeted sectoral reforms. Federal and provincial officials have not yet responded in detail to the report, but the agenda for the Quebec City talks remains centred on accelerating the ‘one Canadian economy’ plan.