Trading with Canada: Chapter 2 - The Markets That Matter Most

The Trading with Canada article series is part of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade's Canada Connects initiative, a market expansion accelerator helping B.C. businesses identify growth opportunities across Canada. Through research on domestic trade flows, market demand, and sector competitiveness, this series explores where British Columbia businesses are best positioned to expand and how they can build new customers, partnerships, and revenue streams across the country. Read the first article here. 

In business, opportunities are rarely distributed evenly.

Whether expanding internationally or closer to home, companies must decide where to invest their time, capital, and attention. While every province represents a potential customer base, not every market offers the same scale, growth potential, or strategic value.

To identify those opportunities, we assessed Canada’s nine provinces (excluding our own) across three dimensions: market potential, existing engagement with British Columbia, and openness to internal trade. The results were clear.

Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec emerged as B.C.'s three priority domestic markets, ranking well ahead of the rest of the country. Together, these provinces already account for approximately 84 per cent of B.C.'s interprovincial exports, receiving more than $47 billion of the province's $56.3 billion in domestic exports. Together, they form the backbone of B.C.'s domestic trade relationships and should be at the centre of any strategy to expand across Canada. 

The table ranks the nine provinces. Each index is scaled so the leading province scores 100; the composite applies the 45 / 45 / 10 weighting.

** This does not mean opportunities do not exist elsewhere in Canada. Every province offers potential customers, partners, and growth opportunities, and the right market for any business will depend on its sector, product, capabilities, and objectives. Rather, this analysis identifies the provinces that stand out when evaluating market size, existing trade relationships, and overall expansion potential at a provincial level.

ONTARIO 

Ontario ranks first overall in the analysis, driven primarily by the sheer scale of its economy and population. It is Canada's largest provincial economy, largest consumer market, and B.C.'s largest trading partner by total volume.

In 2022, two-way trade between B.C. and Ontario exceeded $52.8 billion, making it the province's largest overall trading relationship. Ontario imported $17.1 billion in goods and services from B.C., roughly 30 per cent of all B.C. interprovincial exports.

The province is particularly important for knowledge-based industries. Ontario is the lead market for software, information and cultural services, research and development, telecommunications, beverages, and a range of advanced business services. Software exports alone totalled more than $1.3 billion to Ontario in 2022, accounting for nearly half of B.C.'s interprovincial software exports.

Every province is competing for market share in Ontario. Success requires a clear value proposition and a strong understanding of where B.C. firms possess genuine competitive advantages. In many of B.C.'s strongest sectors, Quebec remains the dominant supplier in Ontario. B.C. is often the second-largest interprovincial supplier but trails Quebec in professional services, software, information services, and wood products.

ALBERTA

British Columbia and Alberta have a deep economic relationship.  

Geographic proximity, longstanding business relationships, and integrated supply chains have helped create one of the country's most significant interprovincial trading corridors. For many B.C. companies, Alberta is already the first destination outside the province where they do business.

Alberta is B.C.'s largest export destination, purchasing $24.2 billion in goods and services in 2022, equal to 43 per cent of all B.C. interprovincial exports. The relationship is also unusually balanced. Two-way trade reached almost $49 billion, with exports and imports nearly identical.

Professional services, transportation and logistics, forestry-related services, agricultural products, and resource-related industries all have strong positions in Alberta. The data also shows that Alberta remains the primary destination for several of B.C.'s most competitive products, including professional services, transportation services, forestry-related products, and farm products.

QUEBEC

La Belle Province presents a different story. The province ranks third overall in the market analysis, largely because of its economic size and population. Quebec's economy exceeds $600 billion and serves more than nine million residents, yet B.C. exported just $6.2 billion to Quebec in 2022. This discrepancy highlights that B.C.’s commercial engagement with Quebec remains relatively limited, with distance and language barriers likely the main culprits, but houses a significant upside for growth.

The data also points to emerging momentum. Some of the fastest-growing trade corridors between B.C. and Quebec are concentrated in the province's strongest knowledge sectors. Exports of software to Quebec have been growing by roughly 12 per cent annually, information and cultural services by 11 per cent, research and development by 10 per cent, and beverages by 26 per cent.

That does not mean Quebec will suddenly rival Alberta or Ontario in overall trade volumes. But it may represent the most significant expansion opportunity for firms that have already established themselves elsewhere in Canada.

The lesson from the data is straightforward. Most businesses don't need a coast-to-coast strategy on day one.  Ontario and Alberta stand clearly above the field as B.C.'s most important domestic markets today, while Quebec occupies an important whitespace with perhaps the largest opportunity to expand beyond existing relationships and trade patterns. For many firms, these three provinces represent the logical starting point for a domestic growth strategy, though opportunities can be found across the country depending on a company's sector and market position.

Understanding where to focus, however, is only part of the equation. Market selection tells us where the opportunity exists. The next challenge is determining whether a company's products, services, and capabilities align with the demand in those markets and identifying the partners, customers, and networks that can help convert opportunity into sales.

This is where our Canada Connects program can play an important role. By helping businesses better understand market conditions, connect with potential partners, and navigate opportunities across provincial borders, Canada Connects can reduce the uncertainty that often accompanies expansion and help firms focus their efforts where they are most likely to succeed

As it turns out, the province's greatest strengths are not always the ones people traditionally associate with the B.C. economy.

Our next article examines the sectors where B.C. is building a competitive edge and why knowledge-intensive industries are increasingly driving interprovincial growth.