N.B. scores an A on internal trade as complaint hearing continues

The president of an Ontario construction company with an internal-trade complaint against New Brunswick is scoffing at the improved grade the province received this week for lowering trade barriers.

N.B. scores an A on internal trade as complaint hearing continues Lawyers for Ontario company say province treated it unfairly, violating interprovincial agreement The president of an Ontario construction company with an internal-trade complaint against New Brunswick is scoffing at the improved grade the province received this week for lowering trade barriers. Derek Martin told CBC News he doesn’t buy the A grade in an annual report card from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “It’s based on assumptions of what they’re going to do going forward,” said Martin, the president of Julmac Contracting Ltd.

“It’s not based on facts today. “It’d be great going to university, getting an A on my first exam and I don’t have to do anything.” Martin’s company is arguing under the 2017 Canadian Free Trade Agreement that New Brunswick discriminated against it on several contracts because it’s from outside the province.

On Monday, Julmac’s lawyer cited a previous D score the province earned from the independent business group’s report card two years ago. The five-day hearing in Fredericton is the first ever held under the current version of the internal-trade agreement, which committed provinces to lower trade barriers. Lawyers for Julmac and the provincial government presented their closing arguments in the case Thursday.

Julmac argues that New Brunswick’s unfair treatment compared to local contractors put the company at a competitive disadvantage. The alleged discrimination included repeated requests for design changes that cost time and money, and applying requirements to Julmac that the province waived for New Brunswick contractors. Julmac’s lawyer David Outerbridge told the panel of three trade lawyers hearing the case that the province had failed to offer any proof that companies here didn’t get favourable treatment in the handling of contracts.

“If the government of New Brunswick had good evidence, you would have seen it,” he said. Mark Heighton, one of the lawyers for the province, said Julmac was trying to turn its poor handling of its bridge contracts into an internal-trade issue. The company was supposed to complete four bridge contracts worth a total of $83 million between late 2023 and late 2024 and only finished one of them, he said.

The company’s work was often deficient and late, leading to the deterioration of its relationship with the province, Heighton said. “Julmac wants to move you away from those explanations,” he told the panel. Outerbridge called New Brunswick a “well-known violator” of free-trade principles on Monday, pointing to the province’s 2023 D grade from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

New Brunswick had a C- in the report card for 2024 and this week’s report awarded the province an A for 2025. “We have moved forward with different things ... and you know, we are very happy with the leadership that the province is doing,” Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Jean-Claude D’Amours told CBC News. As Martin pointed out, the report by the business federation said improved grades for most governments “largely reflect commitments and policy intentions more than progress felt on the ground.”

“After years of studies, commitments, and signings of MOUs, small business owners are still waiting for changes to improve their day-to-day operations: fewer barriers, streamlined approvals, and improvements to how they operate across Canada,” the report said. N.B. government rejects claim of internal-trade discrimination N.B. adopted Trump-like protectionism, lawyer alleges D’Amours said memorandums of understanding were “one thing for sure, but we have specific items we have moved forward during the last year and a half,” such as labour mobility and an end to restrictions on interprovincial alcohol sales. The business federation said next year’s report card will give more weight to “measurable outcomes” and will also examine “whether procurement policies are open and nondiscriminatory, ensuring Canadian businesses are not excluded in favour of local preferences.”

That’s the very issue at the centre of the Julmac dispute. D’Amours said he would not comment on the hearing because it’s in the midst of a quasi-judicial process. Julmac lawyer Shalom Cumbo-Steinmetz pointed out Thursday this is the first time a dispute panel will interpret the 2017 internal trade agreement to apply it in a ruling.

He said that agreement is designed to create “an open market” for construction companies and the panel should not let New Brunswick “create off-ramps” from the broader goal. The province will wrap up its arguments on the final day of the hearing on Friday.