Premiers unified in demand for cash
Leaders show solidarity seeking federal funds for infrastructure, health
Please, sir, can we have some more?
That’s the message from Canada’s provincial and territorial leaders to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when it comes to funding for health care and infrastructure.
The premiers emerged from a four-hour, closed-door meeting — their first since Trudeau’s Liberals were reduced to a minority government in the recent federal election — demanding increases in transfers from Ottawa.
With the weakened federal Liberals lacking any MPs in Alberta or Saskatchewan and facing an emboldened Bloc Québécois in Quebec, the premiers smell blood.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who spearheaded Monday’s summit at the Hilton Airport Hotel in Mississauga, emphasized the leaders stuck to matters of agreement.
They will take their demand for an increase to the Canada Health Transfer by 5.2 per cent a year to a first ministers meeting with Trudeau in Ottawa next month.
At the same time, they want Trudeau to allow the provinces and territories to opt out of any national pharmacare program. (Ontario currently has free prescription drugs for people under 25 with no private coverage and those over 65 can apply to the Ontario Drug Benefit.)
“We may have our differences, but Canada is united. We’re a united nation and, as you’ve seen at this meeting, when some of the provinces are struggling … we have their back,” Ford told the closing news conference.
Over the weekend, he had set the stage for the meeting with an op-ed in the Star, Canada’s largest circulation newspaper.
“We must focus on the things we all agree on — job creation, infrastructure and health care. Those shared priorities also happen to be the lion’s share of what the people elected us to do,” Ford wrote. “There is more common ground to be had than not. Of course, we can’t move forward without first recognizing there are parts of this country that are hurting. Our friends in the West and our friends in the East have real grievances,” he said.
Ford said the premiers would be looking to Ottawa for a “renewed commitment” to healthcare funding.
In response, an aide to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau’s unity minister, said “the federal government is committed to working collaboratively with provinces and territories in the interests of all Canadians.”
“We are open and keen to discuss how the federal, provincial, and territorial governments can tackle issues together, very much including: fiscal stabilization, fighting climate change, health care and pharmacare, infrastructure, Northern priorities, trade and market access for natural resources, among many others,” Alex Lawrence said.
British Columbia Premier John Horgan said “it was an extraordinary meeting at an extraordinary time.”
“We talked about nationbuilding,” said Horgan.
“It was an opportunity to come together to address fiscal federalism,” he said. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney — who is leading the charge against Ottawa over the need to reform equalization, the national wealth-sharing program — said he was gratified to see that his colleagues “understand the adversity Albertans are going through” due to global oil prices.
“This was a terrific show of solidarity,” said Kenney.
One matter of disagreement among the premiers is Quebec’s Bill 21, which bans public servants in that province from sporting religious symbols in the workplace.
The grandfathered legislation means any newly hired doctors, nurses, teachers, police, or other civil service employees will be forbidden from wearing the hijab, turbans, yarmulkes or crosses. Ontario MPPs twice condemned Bill 21in motions in the legislature last month and Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister has urged religious Quebecers to consider moving to his province.
“We need people in Manitoba who have bilingual skills. We’re a bilingual province,” Pallister said earlier Monday.
“Quebec has them. It’s a free country and if people want to come they can come. If they want to stay, they can stay. Quebec is a beautiful province, we all know that, but in our case we have some differences and some advantages,” he said.
But to the evident relief of Quebec Premier François Legault, when a reporter asked if Bill 21 had come up during the discussions, Ford interjected.
“We’re here to talk about common ground. We didn’t talk about things we don’t agree with,” the Ontario premier said.
Mindful of the political realities in Ontario, Ford was careful not to do any Trudeau-bashing on Monday.
That’s because the federal Liberals won 79 of Ontario’s 121 seats in the Oct. 21 election. By comparison, Ford’s Progressive Conservatives took 76 of 124 provincial ridings in the June 2018 Ontario election.
Trudeau’s success in Canada’s most populous province was thanks in part to the Liberals’ effectively linking Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer to Ford.
The prime minister actively campaigned against the Ontario premier, warning Scheer would bring to Canada the kind of unpopular budget cuts that the provincial Tories unveiled in last April’s budget.
That spending plan was so poorly received that Ford demoted treasurer Vic Fedeli 10 weeks later in a massive cabinet shuffle and anointed Rod Phillips as finance minister.
A new Leger poll for The Canadian Press conducted Nov. 15-25 using an online panel of 3,400 people across the country found Ford is the least popular premier in his home province.
He had a 26 per cent approval with 69 per cent disapproval for an overall rating of -43 per cent.