Premiers meeting in Quebec City on Thursday said an agreement will be in place next year to cut the layers of red tape workers face when moving between provinces.
The plan would recognize professional qualifications across provincial and territorial lines and make it easier for Canadians to work anywhere in the country, said Quebec Premier Jean Charest and Manitoba Premier Gary Doer.
"We are building upon the great success of bilateral and trade agreements internally in Canada over the last number of years," Doer told reporters at a news conference on Thursday, the second day of a three-day Council of the Federation premiers summit.
"We are fully committed to labour mobility within our country... We believe working people and their families want to have a situation where they do not have to go through 13 separate accreditation processes but rather one accreditation process.
"We believe that a teacher is a teacher, a nurse is a nurse, a welder is a welder and we believe that will be accomplished with the accreditation acceptance of each of our jurisdictions."
The two premiers, who emerged briefly from the meeting to update the media, said they plan to have a national agreement by April 1, 2009.
Mobility and trade have been the focus of discussions for more than a decade, noted Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who also spoke with the media on Thursday.
"Labour mobility is something we've been wrestling with for twelve years," he said.
This year, the Council is shifting its focus away from petitioning the federal government for action, and toward solving problems internally, McGuinty said.
"More and more we're trying to grapple with the issues we can resolve on our own."
The premiers are also expected to use their meeting to develop strategies on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
However, going into the talks, McGuinty wasn't overly optimistic.
"I don't think it's reasonable for us to expect that we're going to emerge with a consensus," said McGuinty.
"We just have different provinces, different economies, different perspectives."
Kelowna Accord
On Wednesday, the first day of talks, the premiers called for a meeting with the Prime Minister Stephen Harper to deal with poverty and lack of education in native communities.
Charest said they want to build on Harper's historic residential school apology and focus on issues relating to native youths.
The premiers also expressed support for the Kelowna Accord, which puts aside $11.5 billion to address social and economic issues in native communities. The Accord was signed by the former Liberal government but has not been implemented by the Conservatives.
In response, the Tories indicated they're prepared to meet with the premiers but they're not willing to reopen the Kelowna Accord.
With files from The Canadian Press
