quote:
On October 2, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty met with his Quebec counterpart Jean Charest at the fifth annual Ontario Economic Summit to discuss their efforts to work more cooperatively, including plans to sign a new inter-provincial trade agreement that would create a "common economic space in central Canada." Most news reports mentioned the new partnership in passing and focused on the premiers' accusations that the federal leaders are not taking the economic crisis seriously enough. But the financial collapse south of the border, and Canada's and the province's potential responses to it, are precisely why we should be paying much more attention to what McGuinty and Charest are up to - and how their new partnership could do more to limit policy solutions than increase them in these times of need.
The premiers announced the forging of an Ontario-Quebec Economic Partnership Agreement (OQEPA) at a joint cabinet meeting in Quebec City on June 2. While the announcement was a culmination of several protocols for cooperation the two men had signed since 2006, this was a much bigger leap toward a full trade agreement – one they have kept very close to their chests. Despite a press release this June stating a framework for negotiations had been released publicly, it is, in fact, only available upon request from the Ministry of Economic Development.