Notley focuses on carbon pricing, health care funding, free trade as premiers meeting winds down

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said several issues were top of mind for her on the last day of the premiers meeting in Whitehorse.

Notley said Friday that disaster relief, carbon pricing, health care funding and free trade were the biggest issues for her.

The conversation around disaster relief and disaster prevention funding comes after the devastating Fort McMurray wildfire.

Notley said she expects a “robust” conversation around carbon pricing.

“There are different perspectives taken on the matter, as you’ve already heard from different premiers, and there are also different systems in place,” she said.

“We’ll be talking about our different perspectives and how we work to meet the obligations that we all committed to in Paris.”

Notley also said she expects a deal will eventually be reached on a new health accord with the federal government.

The federal Liberals promised to negotiate a new health accord with the provinces and territories, including a long-term deal on funding.

“We all understand it’s critically important the accord be renewed and the funding be continued and, in fact, grown in some respects. The formula for how that’s done of course needs to be discussed but we are all committed to ensuring that we do the best that we can for the citizens of our provinces.”

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Coming into the meeting, the premiers were focused on a free-trade agreement that would allow the provinces and territories to do business with each other in the same way Canada trades with other countries.

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Notley said there needs to be a fundamental and important balance in a trade pact between provinces, territories and the federal government, which, as of Thursday, remained an elusive goal due to unresolved issues.

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“We need to promote internal trade as much as we possibly can. There are many, many parts of that, of what’s in the AIT right now, that will ensure that that happens,” she said.

“On the flipside, we also need to ensure governments who are in provinces that are dealing with specific economic challenges, like for instance Alberta, are able to also engage in a responsible way to address those matters.”