HALIFAX - The carbon tax and housing issues were important topics this week for provincial premiers at the Council of the Federation fall meeting in Halifax.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe met the media alongside Tim Houston, Premier of Nova Scotia, to talk about some of the issues and priorities raised this week.
Here is a look at some of the takeaways from that meeting of the premiers in Halifax.
Carbon tax
As expected the move to a federal carbon tax exemption on home heating oil received an icy reception from the Premiers.
“I would say that the discussion at the table led by Premier Houston was that wherever you sit on the carbon tax policy, whether it’s effective or not … largely outside of Quebec, that policy has been at least attempted to be provided fairly across the nation. No one can say that today,” said Moe. “There’s carve-out after carve-out being discussed at the federal level, and really at the end of the day what we need to do is remove that consumption carbon tax that is causing inflation to Canadian families. So we asked that the federal government to be fair to Canadian families, to quit with the carve-outs in certain regions, in certain areas that are impacting some Canadians but not all, be fair to all Canadians and to remove essentially the carbon tax from the consumption based inflationary pressures that Canadians are facing.”
“It was kind of refreshing, I guess, how quick the Premiers agreed on a number of issues,” said Houston. “Certainly the Carbon Tax and the need for it to be fair across the country. It was very very quick agreement on that.”
Housing
Another major issue is housing. “The challenges in housing are across the country as well,” said Houston.
One issue that has popped up has been how to get all levels of government on the same page when it comes to getting housing projects off the ground. An issue the premiers have raised is concern about situations where federal housing money is dealt directly with municipalities without the provinces being involved.
The premiers are raising the possibility of provinces possibly having to bring in their own provincial legislation to require the federal government to deal fairly with the provinces, similar to legislation already in place in Quebec.
“Right now we have a federal government that in many ways is acting like they believe in a divide and conquer approach to things,” said Houston. “We see that with the carve-out around a carbon tax, we see it around some of the funding announcements — you wake up in the morning as Premier and hear there is a funding announcement. We just need to make sure that the relationship is fair and honest.”
An example Moe gave of a “wake up in the morning” funding announcement was on removing the GST on construction of rental properties.
The goal, Houston made clear, was to make sure all the parties were included at the table up front — federal, municipal, as well as provincial. Premier Moe concurred.
“By having everyone at the table very early in that process, ultimately, if there are any synergies to be had, we’re going to find them right away and that is the goal. Everyone has the same outcome that they’re focussed on, is to deliver more housing to the residents of Canada, wherever they live.”
Houston said the spirit of it is to make sure the province is a willing partner, and he did not feel having the provinces involved would slow the process down. If they were to be brought in at the end, “that’s a delay,” he said.
“We’re going to be involved eventually, anyway. It’s very rare that the province would not be involved. So to bring the province in after the fact, that’s the risk, that’s the slow down risk right there.”
Health care
Health care had been a prime focus at previous recent Premiers’ meetings and while it saw less of a spotlight this week, Premiers Moe and Houston still cited the importance of the issue.
“Definitely for us, the focus on healthcare has been front and centre for us for two years,” said Houston, “and we made incredible strides but learning from other Premiers and other provinces and territories — this was a great check in point at some of the things that are happening in Saskatchewan around surgical centres, around transparency, very consistent with what we’re doing.”
One issue that got discussed was the human resource issue in general, with Houston pointing to the need for more health care professionals. “The recruitment, the training, the retention, all of those elements were in discussion.”
Also discussed was the recent concern that flared up about the “poaching” of health care workers from other provinces. This issue hit the headlines when some recent duelling health care recruitment events were staged by Saskatchewan and Newfoundland in each others’ provinces.
Moe said “there was agreement around the table to not do it,” and said that might grow into a formal accord as a next step. He said he would leave it to the Chair to put it on the agenda of a subsequent meeting.
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