Premiers warn against federal budget ‘shell game’

Ontario Premier Dalton Mcguinty and Quebec’s Jean Charest are warning Prime Minister Stephen Harper not to balance Ottawa’s books on the backs of the provinces.

With federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tabling a budget on March 29, the premiers of Canada’s two most populous provinces presented a united front Monday at Queen’s Park.

“We’re seeing signs that the federal government intends to arrive at a balanced budget by in part downloading to the provinces,” Mcguinty told reporters. “The federal government did this to the provinces in the 1990s. The last Ontario government did it to Ontario municipalities. It’s nothing but a shell game.”

“Taxpayers simply pay the same costs to a different government. In the end, no one wins, which is why our government has refused to download to our municipalities.”

Lamenting Ottawa’s “troubling approach” to federal-provincial relations, Mcguinty noted the federal crime bill could cost Ontario more than a $1 billion in new jails and enforcement spending.

Charest pointed to Flaherty’s “unilateral” change in funding health care, unveiled in January without any input from premiers.

Ottawa will increase federal transfers for health care at 6 per cent per year until 2017, but after that the payouts will be tied to economic growth and inflation, with a promise hikes won’t fall below 3 per cent.

“We are very concerned about the way the federal government has chosen to make its decisions,” the Quebec premier said, expressing alarm that Ottawa is “not even open to a dialogue” on many issues. “It’s without precedent. We . . . expect some form of a dialogue,” he said.

While Charest emphasized he “cherished” Quebec’s “special relationship” with Ontario, the two premiers pointedly did not discuss federal changes to add 30 seats to the House of Commons for the next election, scheduled in 2015.

That’s because Ontario is set to gain15 of the 30 new constituencies to reflect population growth, while Quebec gets three. Alberta and B.C. are to get six apiece.

“To me, it’s kind of done,” Mcguinty said when asked about the Commons changes. Not so fast, said Charest. “We always felt it was important to look at the whole Parliament of Canada, which includes the Senate,” said Charest, who opposes scrapping the Red Chamber — something Mcguinty has urged.

“Senate reform . . . cannot be done unilaterally,” said Charest. “There’s another example, frankly, of an initiative from the federal government that demonstrates that it’s operating unilaterally.”