VANCOUVER – The economy in its many facets – jobs, investment and trade – is a top agenda item at the annual summer meeting of Canada’s 13 premiers, which runs Wednesday through Friday.
Disaster mitigation will receive significant attention, following a brutal spring and summer that has seen devastating floods and forest fires across the country. Health care will also be debated thoroughly, as provinces begin negotiations with Ottawa on a new health accord and grapple with soaring medical system costs.
Alberta and its band of energy brothers – Saskatchewan and British Columbia – will highlight a number of items related to non-renewable resource development, including improved ports and pipeline capacity to open the West Coast to additional international trade.
"We’ve got to enhance Canada’s position in the world. We’ve got to enhance our access to Asian markets," Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach said Tuesday in an interview. "We cannot rely on one market."
He said the seemingly worsening economic situation in the United States, with the country facing a possible default on its debt and credit rating downgrade, demands Alberta reach out to such customers as China and India to sell its petroleum and agricultural products.
Premiers will receive an update Friday on cross-border relations from Gary Doer, Canadian ambassador to the U.S. and former Manitoba premier.
Stelmach, along with B.C.’s Christy Clark and Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall, are anxious to export their provinces’ resource riches to Asian nations hungry for a stable supplier of petroleum, lumber and minerals.
Just this week, B.C. announced that for the first time, China has topped the United States for the province’s softwood lumber exports, while Chinese state-owned petroleum companies have invested more than $10 billion in Alberta’s oilsands over the past few years.
The meetings could mark a changing of the guard in Canadian politics, with a few new faces already at the table and as many as seven provinces and territories – including Alberta – potentially holding elections this fall.
Saskatchewan will also make its case for the federal government to review its Investment Canada Act, which governs foreign acquisitions of Canadian companies, with Wall believing BHP Billiton’s attempted hostile takeover of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan exposed holes in the regulations.
Wall said he’ll lobby his counterparts for support on having the federal Conservative government more strongly enforce the conditions attached to foreign takeovers and consider allowing a larger public discussion on the possible deals.
"The rules do now border on paranoia," Wall argued. "I’m not sure there is a lot of common sense in some of those regulations."
He’s also hoping premiers can build on the broad national energy strategy developed at this week’s meeting of federal and provincial energy ministers in Kananaskis, Alta., insisting more co-ordination is necessary if Canada is to reach its energy superpower potential. "We are an energy power in the world and we in Canada need to step up and have a short-, mid- and long-term plan," he added.
The staple of all premiers’ conferences – health care – is also on the agenda, as leaders discuss innovation and sustainability in the medical system, and look for some common ground on renegotiating the federal health transfer deal with the provinces that expires in 2014.
Alberta receives less in per-capita transfers than all other provinces (costing provincial coffers around $900 million annually) and wants equitable treatment, but is already facing some resistance from premiers who worry their own allotment could be scaled back.
"I’ll have to reinforce the need for equitable treatment," Stelmach said.
Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty said he’s "a little bit wary" of the political facelift on the federal scene, where the majority Conservative government is "dominated by the West" (73 of the Tories’ 166 seats are in Ontario, though) and the official Opposition NDP caucus is heavy on Quebec MPs. Ottawa has said it’s committed to keeping the current six per cent annual escalator.
McGuinty and Stelmach oppose any federal effort to reduce transfers to their provinces or increase the size of the equalization package for so-called have-not jurisdictions. "Both of those things would come at a cost to Ontarians," McGuinty said Tuesday.
The Ontario premier said he wants all premiers to unite and encourage the federal government to move ahead with a new health accord "that is both long-term and provides secure funding and is committed to reform."
Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger is focusing much of his efforts on the economy, health care and establishing a disaster mitigation strategy.
In June, western premiers urged the federal government to devise a national disaster mitigation plan and to consider funding a special compensation program for farm families and towns devastated by floods and forest fires. Communities in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, to name a few provinces, have experienced billions of dollars in damages due to record flooding as well as wildfires, such as those that razed much of Slave Lake, Alta.
On health care, he said provinces must partner on more bulk buying for certain drugs and deliver better value for the tens of billions spent on health care across the country.
"It’s not just talking about more money," Selinger said.
Nelson Wiseman, political scientist at the University of Toronto, said the premiers’ conferences have proven that provincial and territorial leaders struggle to find unanimity on major issues. A prime example of the divide is on the need to access Asian markets, he said, explaining it’s not really on the radar for the Atlantic Provinces or Central Canada, but remains a key priority for the West.
"There are more divisions there than ever," Wiseman said. "There are big divisions on things like energy."
Calgary Herald, with files from Lee Greenberg, Ottawa Citizen
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