The Alberta government has reported Saskatchewan to the New West Trade Partnership Agreement after Saskatchewan announced plans to ban vehicles with Alberta licence plates from ministry of highways worksites.

Last week, Saskatchewan said the ban would apply to all new contracts for government highway construction projects.

“They provided no rationale for that action, except to say that they had heard rumours that the same thing was happening to Saskatchewan vehicles (in Alberta),” said Deron Bilous, minister of economic development and trade in Alberta at a press conference on Thursday. “That has not, and has never been, the case.”

Immediately after the ban was proposed, the Alberta government said it was giving Saskatchewan one week to reverse the ban before reporting it. That deadline passed on Wednesday night.

“Initiating the dispute resolution process means an impartial arbitration panel will make a binding decision on this matter,” Bilous said.

“Under their policy, they plan to shut down work on any project that has an Alberta-plated vehicle on-site,” Bilous said. “This petty and ridiculous restriction has real consequences for businesses and hardworking people on both sides of the border.”

Saskatchewan minister of economy Steven Bonk told reporters on Thursday that the government was surprised that Alberta went ahead with the injunction.

“We agreed to meet in January to discuss all issues, including the beer issue and the licence plate issue,” Bonk said. “We were looking forward to having all issues on the table and meeting with our counterparts in Alberta.”

Bonk said Saskatchewan construction workers reported discrimination on Alberta worksites to the Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association. The association then contacted the provincial government, which reacted by enacting the licence plate ban.

“They’re concerned that we need a level playing field for Alberta companies, for Saskatchewan companies, and may the company with the best tender win,” he said.

If the Saskatchewan government is found to be non-compliant, it could be fined up to $5 million.

“We are 100 per cent confident that we will win this trade-dispute challenge,” Bilous said.

Alberta had reported that Saskatchewan was applying the ban to existing and future contracts. On Thursday, Bonk said that wasn’t the case.

“This is for all new construction projects going forward,” he said. “Considering the time of year, where construction projects aren’t being tendered out, we thought we’d have time to sit down and have a rational discussion about this.”

The dispute will appear before the New West Trade Partnership in the New Year.

With files from CTV Edmonton