Liberals to get tough with provinces

Infrastructure, trade identified in platform

OTTAWA • Justin Trudeau’s combative attitude to some provincial premiers may not be just campaign rhetoric — his platform is promising to turn it into government policy if the Liberals are re-elected.

The platform takes a hard line on what the Liberals see as provincial foot-dragging on eliminating internal trade barriers and identifying priority infrastructure projects that are eligible for federal funding. And it warns that a re-elected Liberal government will take matters into its own hands on both files if necessary.

On infrastructure, the platform asserts that “some provinces are playing political games — delaying project approvals and putting good jobs and our quality of life at risk.”

In a second term, it says, a Liberal government would require all provinces and territories to identify and approve their long-term infrastructure priorities within two years. Federal infrastructure funding that hasn’t been designated for specific projects by the end of 2021 will be given directly to municipalities, through a top-up of the federal gas-tax fund, to spend on projects they choose.

On internal trade barriers, the platform says a re-elected Liberal government would “actively assert federal jurisdiction where needed to help move forward with free trade within Canada”

Compare that assertive and potentially confrontational tone to the conciliatory note Trudeau struck just three weeks after his government was sworn in in 2015, as he prepared to host the first of his promised annual first ministers’ meetings.

“The challenges we face as a country require a true partnership between the federal government and the provinces and territories, which can only be achieved by sitting down together and engaging in an open and continuous dialogue,” Trudeau said then.

At that time, Trudeau was surrounded by friendly Liberal governments in a host of provinces, including Ontario and Quebec. Since then, most of them have been replaced by decidedly more hostile conservative governments with little inclination to help advance the federal Liberal agenda.

The Canadian Press