Canada’s 13 premiers sat shoulder-to-shoulder Wednesday to both call on the federal government for help and to tell it to step away from their jurisdiction.
During the three days the premiers met for the annual Council of the Federation conference in Halifax, they described tensions in their relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government. But the provincial and territorial leaders didn’t leave the sunny port city without first issuing a list of requests.
The premiers attacked what they see as Ottawa’s habit of intervening in areas of provincial responsibility ranging from dental care to the cod fishery.
As the meetings wrapped up Wednesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford took aim at the federal government’s billion-dollar national school food program, which promises to deliver meals to an additional 400,000 children per year.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
During the three days the premiers met for the annual Council of the Federation conference in Halifax, they described tensions in their relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government.
As the meetings wrapped up Wednesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford took aim at the federal government’s billion-dollar national school food program, which promises to deliver meals to an additional 400,000 children per year.
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, the chair of this year’s conference, said Ottawa’s approach to the federation “risks pitting provinces and territories, really Canadians, against one another.”
They floated several areas where they want to see the federal government play a bigger role, including infrastructure spending, Arctic security and immigration supports.
After years of criticism from allies — most notably the United States — the Liberal government announced last week that it hopes to meet NATO’s military investment commitment of two per cent of alliance members’ gross domestic product by 2032.
Kinew urged Trudeau to reach that target in four years to alleviate concerns south of the border ahead of a presidential election that could return former president Donald Trump to the White House.
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