B.C. premier says working with Ottawa can feel like ‘beating our head against a wall’

HALIFAX — Canada’s premiers on Tuesday lamented what they said was the federal government’s lack of teamwork on important files from housing to school lunch programs, with British Columbia’s premier saying working with Ottawa can feel like “beating our head against a wall.”

Premiers of the ten provinces and three territories are in Halifax for three days this week for the summer meeting of the Council of the Federation, hosted by Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston.

On Tuesday, B.C. Premier David Eby told reporters that for years at these federation get-togethers, he and his counterparts have asked for a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“That call continues to go unanswered and I cannot understand why, because we have a lot of work to do together,” Eby said.

Houston echoed similar sentiments in a letter sent to Trudeau ahead of the conference, asking the prime minister to “work with us in a true partnership” in order to revive the “collaborative spirit of the federation.”

The premier told reporters Tuesday that provinces and territories are closely attuned to their residents’ needs, and they want to work more closely with Ottawa in order to tackle major issues.

“As provinces and territories, we have some things that are in our wheelhouse, that are our jurisdiction. We know a lot about them, we know what we need. And we have ideas about how to approach them,” he said.

“So what we’ve asked for from Ottawa is to partner with us on those things and work with us, and not try to go around us — as may be the case sometimes, as we see on some of the housing stuff that’s happening now.”

One federal program that gets heat from provinces is Ottawa’s Housing Accelerator Fund, which distributes money for housing directly to cities and municipalities, bypassing provincial governments.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who has been highly critical of the accelerator fund, said Tuesday that a lack of collaboration has resulted in the duplication of other programs like dental care, pharmacare and the school lunch program.

Doubling up on these services means “you’re paying for twice as many civil servants to deliver the program, which means you’re not getting the dollars down to the people who need them,” she said.

“What we’ve advocated is — work with us. If you want to get involved in assisting us in cost-sharing, then use our architecture and provide funding so that we can expand the programs.”

Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, acknowledged that there’s a general sense of exasperation among his peers when it comes to working with Ottawa. “All the premiers together, I think that we’re pretty frustrated in that area, but we want to work with the federal government,” Ford told reporters Tuesday.

Eby said he thinks progress could be made if the prime minister were to meet with premiers and make a plan for working together.

“It’s not about money. It’s not about additional funding, it’s about, can we co-ordinate nationally on these areas of shared interest?

“And that is where it sometimes feels like we’re just beating our head against a wall,” Eby said.

The Office of the Prime Minister was not immediately available for comment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2024.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press