By April 2009, Canada will have a truly national labour market, whereby workers in regulated occupations, such as architects, accountants, plumbers, anddoctors, will be able freely move across provincial and territorial borders. At present, many individuals in regulated occupations need to be re-certifiedby the province or territory to which they are relocating before they can start working.

The Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) was signed in Ottawa this week by provincial, territorial, and federal trade ministers as partof Canada's Agreement on Internal Trade.

"Full labour mobility will allow Canadians to move freely, taking advantage of job opportunities, and helps address long-term skilled worker shortages,such as we will face in B.C.," stated British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell. "This is an important step forward, and we need to continue to work onremoving similar barriers to trade and investment, so we have full trade and labour mobility across the country."

This is also good news for Canadian immigrants, some of whom need to re-certify themselves for work in Canada upon arrival. If they later wish to move to another province orterritory, they will no longer have to repeat this process.