HALIFAX — Do you dream of a day when the weight of a load you haul in Prince Rupert, B.C. will be the same as it is in Corner Brook, Nfld., and everywhere in between?

Well, you should keep dreaming, just as truck operators have been doing for decades in Canada. Sure, there’s the basic Memorandum of Understanding that gave us some basic national size-and-weight uniformity a few years ago, but it doesn’t go far enough.

Just look at how long it’s taking to free wide-base single tires of provincial weight penalties (and all jurisdictions but Ontario and Quebec are taking baby steps to uniformity).

There’s been lots of noise lately being made about U.S. protectionism. But while some are rightly concerned over the future of southbound traffic, homegrown protectionism continues to ensure east-west trips aren’t so seamless either.

One problem, some critics say, lies in regional agreements between provinces that preclude national uniformity.

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, for example, recently inked an agreement making it easier to haul goods between the two provinces by relaxing transport regulatory barriers, among other trade breaks. 

LCVs like this twin 53-ft rig are part of a plan to
create freer flowing trade between NS and NB.

The deal is similar to the Trade, Investment and Labor Mobility Agreement (TILMA) signed between B.C. and Alberta in 2007, and is intended to eliminate trade barriers for freer-flowing business and labor practices.

Under the east coast plan, truckers would enjoy uniform size-and-weight regulations on certain combination units, including long combination vehicles (LCVs) and oversize loads, which are currently being tested in both provinces.

The deal also calls for a single weigh-scale enforcement facility at the N.B./N.S. border, eliminating the requirement for trucks hauling between the two jurisdictions to be weighed at Salisbury, N.B. and then again at Amherst, N.S. just an hour later.

The Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association gave the plan a thumbs-up.

"The LCV configuration when added into the mix of various van and flatdeck applications now available from our carriers will add to the versatility of the region’s road transport industry to meet the needs of shippers, producers and manufacturers," says Peter Nelson, APTA executive director.

But some free-market critics who have long championed a fully nationalized transportation system worry that these regional agreements among a select groups of provinces limit the ability to reach cross-country consistency.

"Now you’ve got the TILMA in the west. You’ve got this here. We’ve got Ontario and Quebec talking about it," says Charles Cirtwell, executive vice-president of the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies. "These kind of bilateral things tend to make it more difficult to achieve national agreements."

In June 2008, Ontario and Quebec held an initial joint cabinet meeting and made plans to create a smoother framework for the movement of goods between the two provinces.

The initial focus of the agreement was to develop a new carbon cap-and-trade system. But the partnership is expected to move beyond the environment and attempt to improve trade flow.

Ontario and Quebec aim to team up on a few measures specific to trucking, including speed-limiter implementation and a program to allow LCVs on the two highway systems.

While regional haulers will appreciate the simplicity of harmonized regs when trucking between two partnering provinces, cross-country truckers will still have to understand a complex mittful of differing rules and work with the lowest common denominator. And it’s likely going to stay that way.