Ford threatens to walk out of first ministers summit if Trudeau doesn’t change agenda,
Ford threatens to bolt unless summit better reflects Ontario priorities
OTTAWA— Political tensions crackled into public acrimony as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened with his provincial counterparts for what may be the most divisive first ministers’ summit in recent memory
Just hours before a one-onone meeting with Trudeau in Montreal Thursday afternoon, Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s office signalled he was willing to walk out of the conference on Friday if the prime minister doesn’t change the agenda to reflect the province’s priorities.
Seated next to Trudeau at the outset of their discussion, Ford said he wants to focus on Ottawa’s “job-killing carbon tax,” as well as the impact of the General Motors plant closure in Oshawa and the cost Ontario bears for asylum seekers crossing into Canada from the United States.
At Queen’s Park, Economic Development Minister Todd Smith outlined why Ford was upset with Trudeau’s agenda for the first ministers’ confab.
“The agenda … is basically 60 minutes of the premiers of all the provinces being lectured to by federal ministers, and that’s not what this should be about,” Smith said.
“What (Ford) wants is for the prime minister to change his mind.”
Speaking to reporters earlier at a press conference in Montreal, Trudeau said it is important for Canadian leaders to come together to discuss priorities across the country even when they disagree with each other.
“I don’t have any illusions that we’re all going to agree on everything, but I certainly know that Canadians expect us to be able to roll up our sleeves and talk constructively about how we’re going to solve the challenges they’re facing,” he said.
Ford’s walkout threat came as premiers from Alberta and Saskatchewan also demanded the agenda for the meeting be changed to emphasize the malaise in their oil and gas industries, where a long-standing dearth of pipeline capacity has contributed to a slumping price for Canadian crude.
Before boarding a plane at the Edmonton airport, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley scoffed at the prime minister’s plan for the meeting, which is slated to include presentations from federal cabinet ministers on economic competitiveness, interprovincial trade, and climate change and clean growth.
“We don’t need to waste time, for people to take sort of selfcongratulatory victory laps,” she said.
“That means that we cut the fluff and we change the agenda.”
Chantal Gagnon, senior press secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, said the agenda will include “a discussion on the oil and gas industry” as well as the “impact of struggling oil prices on Canada’s energy sector and energy workers.”
These issues are expected to come up during an economic discussion with Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau, an official from the PMO said on background. There will also be time during a session with Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc for premiers to bring up any other issue they want, the official said.
The leaders were also scheduled to meet for a private dinner Thursday night at an undisclosed location in Montreal.
Friday’s summit is the fourth first ministers’ conference since Trudeau took power in 2015 and promised to resurrect the tradition of regular federalprovincial summits that fell dormant when Stephen Harper was prime minister.
But Trudeau has never faced such outright opposition at the premiers’ table.
Liberal leaders in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick have been replaced by rightleaning premiers with policy priorities that clash with Trudeau’s aims at the federal level. Blaine Higgs, the Progressive Conservative premier of New Brunswick, has said he wants to discuss the chance of revitalizing the abandoned Energy East pipeline project, a proposal to carry Alberta oil to the Maritimes that many political observers assume is dead-on-arrival for voters in Quebec. And Quebec Premier François Legault wants to restrict the number of immigrants allowed to settle in the province — a decision the prime minister questioned because of concerns of a labour shortage for certain businesses.
Meanwhile, provincial opposition has coalesced around Ottawa’s carbon price plan and the fuel levy that will be imposed in four provinces next year. Ontario and Saskatchewan have launched court challenges to fight the federal carbon price, decrying the levy as a job-killing tax that will hurt the economy. New Brunswick and Manitoba are also opposed to the fuel levy, which will be imposed in their jurisdictions as well in April 2019.
Ford, Higgs and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe met Thursday night to lay down their priorities for Friday’s sixhour summit.
Speaking to reporters Thursday afternoon, Moe said the premiers’ concerns over the agenda for the summit might deter some from attending Friday’s meeting, but that he wants to focus on his own goals for the conference. Those include convincing Trudeau to scrap Bill C-69, the federal government’s legislation to overhaul the assessment process for major resource projects, and drop his plans to impose its carbon price and allow provinces like Saskatchewan and Ontario to move forward with their own climate plans that don’t include putting a price on carbon.
“This would be a first step by this federal government in showing that they are listening to provinces and listening to working Canadians across the nation,” Moe said.
Jennifer Wallner, an associate professor of political science at the University of Ottawa, said she laments how first ministers’ meetings can get hijacked by political squabbling that overshadows policy discussions between the leaders of different orders of government. The prime minister’s control over the agenda, and how it is released to premiers only days before the meeting, only amplifies the “petty” political games that sometimes get played, she said. One way to avoid this is to hold these meetings more regularly, with a clear agenda nailed down well in advance, she said.
“It shouldn’t descend into this type of absurdity.”
But even though the meeting presents Trudeau’s opponents with a platform to slag his policies, there may be some political advantage for the prime minister, said David Coletto, chief executive of Abacus Data.
“Having a conflict with Premier Ford, for example, can play to the Liberals efforts in Ontario and really be a counterpoint to some of the policies that the Ontario government are proposing that go against the ideology and world view of more progressive voters,” Coletto said.
“We don’t need to waste time, for people to take sort of self-congratulatory victory laps.” RACHEL NOTLEY ALBERTA PREMIER