Summerside hosts Atlantic premiers, federal ministers
Summerside will play host this week to a gathering of Atlantic Canada’s four premiers, as well as seven federal ministers from the Trudeau government.
The cabinet ministers and the Atlantic premiers will be in the region Tuesday as part of meetings related to the Atlantic Growth Strategy, an initiative launched between the premiers and the federal government in 2016.
The strategy focuses on regional co-operation in areas including immigration, trade, infrastructure and tourism.
A number of high-profile players in the Trudeau government will be in attendance, including Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains, as well as Minister of Immigration Ahmed Hussen.
Attending cabinet ministers from the Atlantic region will include Minister of Health Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Veterans Affairs Seamus O’Regan, Minister of Agriculture Lawrence MacAulay and President of the Treasury Board Scott Brison.
P.E.I. Premier Wade MacLauchlan will also host Atlantic premiers Stephen McNeil from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick’s Brian Gallant and Dwight Ball from Newfoundland and Labrador.
The meetings will take place at Credit Union Place in Summerside.
The agenda includes a focus on the Atlantic immigration pilot, a program that aims to bring 4,000 additional immigrant applicants to the region by 2020.
“As has been the case with a number of other immigration programs, Prince Edward Island has really fulfilled the objectives faster than the other provinces,” MacLauchlan said in a phone interview last week.
“This year, we have achieved our allocation under the pilot program by the first of June.”
The immigration pilot program focuses primarily on drawing skilled workers to the Atlantic region. Between July 2016 and November 2017, P.E.I. all but hit its target allocation of 120, receiving 117 endorsement applications and approving 102.
“That’s a reflection of employers who have become engaged right off the bat on this, who are very much a part of the recruitment and the settlement and success of the people who come in,” MacLauchlan said.
The premier said the subject of regional growth in the tourism industry, as well as a planned trade mission to China in November, will also be high on the agenda.
MacLauchlan acknowledged the ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and Canada would also be a subject of discussion. Although U.S. trade tariffs on Canadian steel have begun to impact local businesses, economists have warned of more severe economic shocks if similar tariffs are imposed on the Canadian auto sector.
A CIBC report released last week warned that U.S. tariffs could cut Canadian auto production by 900,000 cars a year. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly issued warnings on Twitter of punitive tariffs on the auto sector.
MacLauchlan said the issue has caused concern for P.E.I.
“My biggest concern is what these auto tariffs, if they were applied, what they could do to the Ontario economy,” he said. “Ontario is our number-one trading partner.”