Infrastructure is a ‘national project,’ Clark reminds Ottawa
But B.C. premier not as critical of prime minister’s lack of attendance as other provincial leaders in election-year gathering
OTTAWA — Premier Christy Clark didn’t join some of her most outspoken colleagues at the annual premiers’ conference here in sharply attacking Prime Minister Stephen Harper over his refusal to meet with premiers and his dismissal of the provinces’ pleas for billions more in infrastructure dollars.
But Clark, after learning that federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver accused some premiers earlier Friday of being “oblivious” to the economic impact of the oil price drop, challenged Ottawa’s refusal to spend more money on roads, bridges, railways and other facilities that reduce bottlenecks and boost trade. “If they want their budget to recover, if they want to help build a country, the way out of this mess is to grow our markets for all of the things that we produce,” she told The Vancouver Sun after the daylong gathering.
“And you have to find a way to get that stuff to market. That isn’t a provincial project, it’s a national project.” She was referring specifically to the $1.5-billion request made in November by her, Alberta Premier Jim Prentice, and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.
Among the three premiers’ top concerns at that meeting was the inability of Canada’s rail system to get Canadian agricultural products to West Coast ports last year. Clark said Friday that she isn’t giving up hope Ottawa will consider the plea in the upcoming federal budget.
“They may not agree with us, but we know they’re somewhere on the other side of that TV screen listening to what we have to say today.”
One of the Conservatives keeping an eye on the premiers’ deliberations was Oliver, and he was decidedly unimpressed.
“We have launched the longest and largest federal infrastructure program in Canadian history, over $75 billion over the next 10 years,” Oliver said in a statement.
“However, the opposition and some premiers appear oblivious to the consequences of the current global instability and the dramatic decline in the price of oil.”
Clark didn’t partake in some of the fed-bashing rhetoric of conference chairman Robert Ghiz, Prince Edward Island’s Liberal premier.
She was the closest thing Harper has to an ally at the premiers’ conference, given that both Prentice and Wall skipped the gathering.
Ghiz told reporters Harper is defying a Canadian tradition that predates Confederation by refusing to meet regularly with provincial premiers.
Formula shortchanges B.C.
The federal government announced in 2013 a 10-year, $14-billion Build Canada Fund that committed $4 billion to strategic national projects and sprinkled the rest to provinces and territories using a formula that gave B.C. less, as a percentage, than its share of the population.
Since then, not a penny of that money has been spent in B.C., even through the government announced in early 2014 that the fund was open for business effective April 1 of last year.
The provinces have complained about the rules for submitting bids, while some Conservatives blame the provinces for dragging their feet on working with municipalities to set the provinces’ priorities. Clark said it was her understanding that the B.C. government has completed its submission.
There are numerous competing projects for scarce federal dollars, the most political of which is the battle between competing rapid transit projects in Vancouver and Surrey.
Surrey, most observers believe, is more likely to come out the winner given that Vancouver voters haven’t been kind to federal Conservatives and provincial Liberals.
Other projects that will get serious consideration for federal funding include the proposed $700-million Lions Gate waste water treatment plant, which has the endorsement of the 21 municipalities that make up the Metro Vancouver alliance.
The proposed $ 100- million replacement of an aged rail bridge next to the Pattullo Bridge in New Westminster is also high on most priority lists.