Canada’s internal trade push cannot stop at goods: Kelly Gorman, President and CEO of Advocis

Toronto, ON, Nov. 12, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The latest escalation in Canada’s trade dispute with the United States has made an old Canadian problem newly urgent.

Our largest trading relationship has become less predictable. New U.S. tariffs have been met with Canadian countermeasures, and businesses on both sides of the border are again making investment decisions against a backdrop of political uncertainty.

Canada cannot control every decision made in Washington. We have considerably more control over how easy it is to do business within our own country.

That is why the renewed push to remove internal trade barriers matters. For decades, we have accepted provincial differences that make it harder for goods and businesses to move across Canada. Governments are now treating many of those barriers as an economic problem worth solving.

Financial services need to be part of that effort.

Consider insurance advice. Life insurance advisors across Canada begin from broadly common qualification standards, yet an advisor serving clients in more than one province can still encounter separate licensing processes.

There will always be some provincial differences. Insurance is provincially regulated, and laws and market circumstances are not identical everywhere in the country. But every difference ought to have a reason.

That is the question governments and regulators should be asking now. When an insurance advisor is already licensed and in good standing in one province, why should serving clients in another province with equivalent standards require a separate licensing process?

The cost of duplication is easy to dismiss because much of it happens behind the scenes. There is another licence to maintain, another renewal process to track, another set of requirements to understand. For a large institution, those costs can be absorbed by a national compliance operation. For an independent advisor or smaller practice, they are carried by a much smaller business.

Over time, those costs influence where advisors practise and whom it makes economic sense to serve.

That matters to consumers. Canada already has a significant gap in access to professional financial advice, particularly among households with more modest incomes. Strong consumer protection remains essential, but time spent navigating duplicative licensing and compliance processes is time that could otherwise be devoted to serving clients.

There is a practical way forward.

Canada needs a more cohesive approach to provincial jurisdiction over life and health insurance licensing, similar to the framework that exists for mutual fund and investment advisors. Where provinces impose equivalent standards, an advisor's qualifications and good standing should carry across provincial borders through genuine mutual recognition. Where a province requires additional requirements because its laws or consumer risks are different, that requirement can remain.

The important discipline is making sure the difference is there for a consumer protection-driven reason.

Governments are already moving in this direction. Earlier this year, a new financial services chapter came into force under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, an important step toward improving market access and regulatory cooperation across Canada. However, the agreement does not eliminate separate provincial insurance licensing requirements.

Federal, provincial and territorial governments are also working to extend mutual recognition to services, with an agreement targeted for December 2026. How that initiative will apply to insurance licensing remains to be determined.

Insurance regulators should use this opportunity to examine how equivalent qualifications and good standing can be recognized more consistently across provinces, while preserving requirements necessary for consumer protection.

Much of that foundation already exists. The Life Licence Qualification Program provides a harmonized basis for entry-level licensing across Canada, and provincial regulators already recognize equivalent out-of-province qualifications in many circumstances. The next step is to make that recognition more consistent and reduce unnecessary duplication in the licensing process.

A well-designed regulatory system asks professionals to meet demanding standards because those standards protect the public. It should be equally disciplined about requirements that consume time and money without adding meaningful protection.

The economic argument has become harder to ignore.

Canada is being reminded, in real time, of the risk that comes with depending so heavily on access to another country's market. Building a stronger Canadian economy will require major projects and difficult decisions. It will also require governments to stop imposing avoidable costs on commerce within our own borders.

Advisors must meet the qualifications and standards necessary to protect consumers. But when those requirements have already been satisfied in one province, another province with equivalent standards should recognize those qualifications and good standing without unnecessary duplication.

Canada cannot decide what Washington does next, but we can decide whether barriers like this remain here at home.

Kelly Gorman is President and CEO of Advocis, The Financial Advisors Association of Canada. 

Jacquie Kilislian, Senior Director, Marketing & Communications
Advocis, The Financial Advisors Association of Canada
416-342-9836
jkilislian@advocis.ca