For example, if you're an unemployed Canadian whose skills are not appreciated in Canada but are in great demand in the US, a free labour movement agreement between Canada and the US could allow you to go there to work with nothing but a valid Canadian passport.
If you're an American whose skills are unappreciated in the US but in high demand in Canada, such an agreement would allow you to work in Canada with just a US passport.
This could also involve collaboration between our ministries of education to establish common educational standards for various trades and professions so as to make our workforce more mobile.
To take an example, let's say Western Canada and the Eastern US were experiencing labour shortages while the rest of North America was in recession. This would allow a Seattle resident of limited means to just take a bus across the border and find a job in Vanocuver, as long as he has a valid US passport; and a Halifaxer would be free to go to New York to find work in the same manner, without having to spend all his money crossing the country and be further away from family and friends than he needs to be. Let's put people and families first. This way a poor Halifaxer who could not afford to cross the country could just cross the border, much less expensive and saves him money and the taxpayer money in having to pay for his social assistance owing to stupid laws blocking him from finding work.
Also, does it make sense to have a Canadian garage being shortstaffed while a fully qualified American mechanic just across the border is unemployed? Same the other way around.
Why could Canada and the US not adopt a 'scratch my back and I scratch your's approach to things rather than you kick me and I kick you back approach, which only hurts the most vulnerable Canadians in the end.
We complain when people are on welfare, but then insist on having 1001 laws to keep them from finding work. Restrictions on freedom of labour movement between nations and trade restrictions are among those silly restrictions. If we insist on preventing people from finding work, then e have none to blame but ourselves for the unemployment in our countries.
Let's have our countries work together to make work accessible to all rather than always competing to undermine each others efforts only to have both countries suffer in the end?
