‘A lot of hugging’: Canada West Foundation says first ministers aligned on key priorities

Canada West Foundation President & CEO, Gary Mar, speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about the First Ministers' meeting.

Canada West Foundation president and CEO Gary Mar speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about the first ministers’ meeting on Monday.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: Ontario’s Doug Ford is calling it the best meeting in 10 years. You were there in Saskatoon. How far do you feel these discussions go to meeting the moment?

Gary Mar: On Sunday night, there was a reception that was hosted by Premier (Scott) Moe and all of the premiers and the prime minister were there. I must say that the mood in the room was very good.

One can see the interactions among and between the premiers and I think there was a lot of hugging and a lot of, in the case of Premier (François) Legault, kissing on both cheeks. It was a very, very good mood going into it. I’ve been to a lot of first ministers’ meetings in the past, and this just had a great sense of hope attached to it.

I’d say that for the prime minister, he really needed to have two things emerge from this to be a successful first ministers’ meeting. One, there needed to be some alignment among and between the provinces and territories and the federal government on a number of issues, and I think he got that.

One of the examples of alignment was Premier Ford, who’s signed off on interprovincial trade agreements with Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova, Scotia, PEI and other provinces, and I think that this is showing an alignment that is consistent with what the prime minister is looking for, which is a one economy in Canada, and this is a very, very good piece.

The second alignment that I saw was that the four western premiers and the territorial premiers agreed to the concept of a port-to-port trade corridor that would go from Prince Rupert to Churchill, Man. I think this is also a very positive thing that, again, is consistent with what the federal government is looking for.

So I think the prime minister had a very good first ministers’ meeting but I would also say so did Premier (Danielle) Smith. I watched her interactions, and I listened to the commentary of all of the premiers of Canada that talked about the need for pipelines and the need to make sure that there would be regulations that would allow it to go forward.

MH: So there was support in that regard. What about the fact, though, nothing was carved in stone from the standpoint of specific nation-building projects, be they pipelines or otherwise?

GM: I don’t think it would have been realistic to expect that out of a meeting like this. That’s why I said for the prime minister, he really needed to lay out a process by which projects of national importance would be able to go forward.

I was advised that there were hundreds of projects that were on the list that premiers wanted to get done, and that the amount of time that was allocated in the agenda was 75 minutes. So there was no way that we could have expected that there would have been agreement on specific projects going forward. But that the premiers, agreed with the Prime Minister on a process going forward, I think, is a big step forward.

I don’t think the prime minister’s got a lot of time, and he’s got to be able to demonstrate that he can get things done quickly, because that’s what his promise was, and I’m quite pleased again for Premier Moe, Premier Smith, Premier Ford, who all strongly stood up for the interests of their provinces. I think we’re going to get things done.

MH: Where do you think this meeting leaves questions over national unity, quelling concerns over the building separation sentiments that we’re seeing here in Alberta?

GM: I think that Premier Smith made it very, very clear at the meeting, she is not in favour of Alberta sovereignty. That was something that was reiterated by a number of premiers when they were asked about it.

Now, with respect to what came of this meeting, I think Premier Smith rightly noted that this is a step in the right direction, and it’s a necessary step, but by itself, is not sufficient to actually quell those people that that want a sovereign Alberta.

I think they’re a very, very small number, but in order to quell them, there’s going to have to be more that is done. I think we’re going in the right direction, and the premier’s demonstrated great leadership on this.

MH: There is legislation being promised in the near term to eliminate federal barriers to internal trade, something that during the election was indicated would happen by July 1. How realistic is that from the perspective of the provinces?

GM: I spoke with Chrystia Freeland, and in her capacity as minister of transport, she’s quite interested in this. The Canada West Foundation had replied to the Privy Council Office for submission on the kinds of things that needed to be done in order to knock down interprovincial trade barriers.

Some of the provinces have already done that. There are things that the federal government can do as well, but the easy things have already been done. There are some harder issues that need to be tackled, but I think that the mood around the room of recognizing that. As Premier Moe said, it shouldn’t be harder to trade within your country than to trade with other countries, is a sentiment that all the premiers shared.

So if everybody acts with goodwill and moves forward, I think we might have some tangible progress before the July 1 deadline.

MH: With that in mind, what weight do you give that memorandum of understanding now in place between Alberta and Ontario?

GM: I think it’s a good start. The language of the document talks about how they will strive to knock down barriers to interprovincial trade. That is a memorandum of understanding, that is not an agreement to actually do something yet.

The sentiment of all of the premiers of Canada is that they would like to be able to trade more with each other, recognizing that trade with the United States remains, at times, a difficult relationship that is fraught with all kinds of trade irritants, but in the meantime there are things that we can do within our own country that can improve our economic opportunities.