Comment by kareemm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kareemm | Hacker News Reader

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> I have no idea what the process would be, but a real step forward would be to for the Federal government to work to end the QIIP, though I recognize this would probably open a can of worms and raise a bunch of new issues with Quebec.

According to Ian Young the Feds can end the QIIP[1]:

Although Quebec is in charge of choosing its immigrants, Federal authorities actually issue their certificates of permanent residency, and decide the speed at which to do so. According to Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, there is no doubt that “the feds have the legal right, pure and simple, to cancel the program”. “This is not about a constitutional or legal barrier. There is neither,” he said.

1 - http://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/...

They have the legal right, but it would be politically awkward, and I'm not sure Trudeau is looking to annoy his base in Quebec to serve the interests of British Columbians, who have never been a part of the LPC's base and only recently elected more than a couple Liberal MPs.

Similarly, it's well within the Federal Govt's rights to mandate free trade within Canada, but they only had the political willpower to suggest provinces work together to reduce barriers.

Any idea why that is? I've often wondered why they don't just mandate it - I don't see the massive political fallout from mandating free trade in goods and services within Canada...

Because all of the protectionism in Canada is in support of local interests: dairy farmers, brewers, etc. Remove the trade barriers, and the crappy ones will die. That's a much bigger deal politically than the win from efficient firms doing better and prices going down.

The federal government just has no real incentive, short of it actually being in the nation's best interest, to force internal free trade. They would have to expend significant political capital to do so.

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