FUNDING AGREEMENT
Province defends handshake deal with feds
The Saskatchewan government is defending its decision to sign an infrastructure funding agreement worth almost $1 billion on a handshake that the terms of the deal would later be made more favourable to the province.
That handshake is now at the centre of the latest dust-up between Regina and Ottawa, which began last month when the province took its funding negotiations public and accused the federal government of delaying a host of projects.
While the two sides subsequently agreed to fund some projects, the spat has nevertheless continued, leading to accusations of political manoeuvring by Premier Scott Moe and Regina-wascana member of Parliament Ralph Goodale.
“We were moving forward with an understanding that there would be more flexibility added to it,” Deputy Premier Gord Wyant said of the decision to sign the deal in October, a month after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blasted Saskatchewan for its tardiness. “If we would have waited to sign an amending agreement or have something formal without taking them at their word, we wouldn’t have any projects approved this year,” Wyant continued.
Infrastructure Canada spokeswoman Ann-clara Vaillancourt said the original agreement was executed because the federal government wanted to capitalize on construction season and get infrastructure projects moving this year.
However, she said, “we would not have made a promise that is not reflected in the agreement, just for the sake of getting it signed.”
Wyant’s use of “flexibility” refers to Saskatchewan’s stated desire to use some funds from a $307-million pool earmarked for transit projects in major cities — one of four streams in the deal — to pay for cultural and recreation projects in Saskatoon and Regina.
According to the province, an immediate transfer would preserve the $56-million culture and recreation stream for use in other communities. Wyant said proposed projects in Saskatoon and Regina would devour roughly 40 per cent of that total.
The agreement Saskatchewan and Canada inked in October states Ottawa will review requests for transfers between streams “including, but without being limited to,” three and five years after the deal was executed “to reflect Saskatchewan’s needs.”
At the time, following a series of bitter exchanges between Moe and Trudeau, Wyant traded compliments with federal infrastructure minister Francois-philippe Champagne, who referred to his provincial counterparts as his “new best friends.”
This spring, Infrastructure Canada’s Deputy Minister Kelly Gillis wrote to her provincial counterpart stating that the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program had been changed “to respond to the concerns and challenges (Saskatchewan) raised.”
In the letter, Gillis said new “flexibilities” include the ability for the province to immediately transfer money out of the transit stream and into streams for green infrastructure and projects in rural and northern communities, but not culture and recreation projects.
Wyant, meanwhile, said Ottawa was aware of the province’s expectations, and that while Saskatchewan didn’t have a signed agreement, it had “conversations” and a draft amending agreement to that effect with its federal counterpart.
Vaillancourt, however, said the changes reflected in Gillis’s letter — the ability to transfer some funds between streams ahead of the original three-year window — were a response to an “official request” from the province.