Manitoba joins New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA)

Manitoba Legislature, Winnipeg.

Manitoba has joined the three other Western Canada provinces to create a large, barrier-free trade and labour market — one that catches consulting engineering services within its purview.

B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and now Manitoba are all part of the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA). It amounts to an open common market of more than 11 million people and a combined gross domestic product of more than $750 billion.

Originally signed in 2010, NWPTA became fully implemented between the three original signatories in 2013. It is a commitment to enhance trade, investment and labour mobility — including by doing away with barriers that hinder the movement of goods and services.

The agreement requires government entities that are procuring goods or services over a threshold value to have an open and non-discriminatory procurement process, so that vendors from the other provinces can participate. The threshold varies according to the type of government entity and type of work. For services provided to the provincial government, or to  municipalities, school boards, health regions, and post-secondary education institutions, the threshold is $75,000.  For crown corporations and other organizations owned by the province, the threshold is $100,000.

There are exceptions to the NWPTA procurement rules. For example, for “goods required to respond to an unforeseeable situation of urgency.”

For more details about NWPTA, click here.