The Nova Scotia government made waves earlier this year when it introduced legislation that would remove red tape on out-of-province goods and make it easier for Canadians from other jurisdictions to work there.

But the province quickly learned the limits to its ambitions on labour mobility when professional bodies warned that the legislation would lead to a lack of oversight.

Nova Scotia ultimately abandoned its initial plan to allow service providers to work in the province without getting relicensed. The pivot demonstrates some of the potential challenges Canada could face as Prime Minister Mark Carney vows to dismantle interprovincial barriers and introduce similar legislation at the federal level in response to the trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Some professional bodies in the province have argued that labour mobility wasn’t a pressing problem in the first place. Alec Stratford, the head of the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers, said internal free-trade laws seem more “performative” than substantive in the face of economic uncertainty.

“In the case of social work, I‘m not sure what anyone is talking about when they say we need greater labour mobility, because it’s a problem that we’ve been working on and have virtually solved,” Mr. Stratford said.

The bill introduced by Premier Tim Houston sought to allow Canadians licensed in other provinces, such as a teacher from Alberta or an engineer from Ontario, to work in Nova Scotia without having to undergo additional licensing, so long as their home province took similar steps to remove red tape.

It was the first legislation of its kind in the country, earning Mr. Houston praise for taking a sweeping step to knock down interprovincial trade barriers.

However, professional licensing bodies in Nova Scotia warned the government that the legislation would remove their authority to regulate workers who relocate to the province, meaning they wouldn’t be able to investigate and resolve any complaints against those service providers. Meanwhile, regulators in the workers’ home provinces likely would not have jurisdiction over what happens in Nova Scotia.

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Pal Mann, head of Engineers Nova Scotia, said regulators such as the one he represents were worried the legislation would open up a “big, fuzzy grey zone that created a risk to the public.”

The feedback prompted the government to amend its legislation, which passed in late March, so that it reinstated the requirement to be licensed in Nova Scotia but stipulated that bodies must approve eligible applicants within 10 business days.

Otherwise, not much has changed: Workers in regulated industries will continue to pay annual fees and follow the rules outlined by regulators.

Mr. Stratford said the amendments generally addressed the concerns raised by regulators. However, he said the law could potentially lower the standards for becoming a social worker in Nova Scotia, noting that Alberta only requires a diploma to become a social worker, while other provinces require a bachelor’s degree.

As for the timeline outlined in the legislation for approving licences for eligible applicants, Mr. Mann and Mr. Stratford both said their organizations have faster processing times than outlined in the new law.

Nova Scotia‘s new legislation is part of a broader push in Canada to unify the economy and increase domestic growth by boosting internal trade.

Mr. Carney has made removing interprovincial barriers a key objective of his government, frequently arguing that Canada needs one economy, not 13 for each province and territory. Ontario and Prince Edward Island are pursuing legislation similar to Nova Scotia‘s, and Mr. Carney has promised to bring forward legislation that would lift all federal barriers to trade between provinces and territories by July 1.

But from the perspective of professional bodies in Nova Scotia, it’s unclear what problem the provincial legislation was intended to address in the first place when it comes to labour mobility, and the amended bill hasn’t changed how the bodies operate.

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“I don’t think it was really a problem, regardless of the sound bites that were happening at the national political level of how it’s hard for an engineer to move from one jurisdiction to another,” Mr. Mann said.

Mr. Stratford shares a similar perspective, noting that said barriers to labour mobility had already been addressed by the Canadian free-trade agreement.

The CFTA, signed by the federal, provincial and territorial governments in 2017, ensures that workers have the right to be relicensed in other jurisdictions.

The agreement, which seeks to facilitate trade and labour mobility within Canada, stipulates that workers certified by a regulator should be certified by the equivalent regulator in another jurisdiction “without any requirement for any material additional training, experience, examinations or assessments as part of that certification procedure.”

However, the agreement still allows a regulator to impose additional training or requirements on a worker coming from another province with different academic credentials or education if the regulator can prove it leads to a skills deficiency.

A spokesperson for the Nova Scotia government said changes made to the legislation were the result of “listening to regulators and stakeholders.”

“We must resolve barriers to interprovincial trade and labour mobility, and mutual recognition helps promote dialogue and harmonization among provincial regulators that upholds high standards,” Monica Maclean said in a statement.