Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to a letter from premiers asking Ottawa to stop overreaching into their jurisdictions with federal programs by saying he'll “go around” the provinces if needed.
“I’m going to work where I can in partnership with provinces that want to, like B.C. and others have. And places where they want to block the kinds of investments that are going to help Canadians, I’m just going to try and figure out ways to help Canadians directly,” Mr. Trudeau said during a press conference in Victoria on April 19.
The prime minister added that while he preferred to work directly with the provinces, “if we have to, I will go around them and be there for Canadians.”
Mr. Trudeau was responding to an April 19 letter from the Council of the Federation, which is made up of all 13 provincial and territorial premiers. The letter addressed the recent 2024 budget, with the premiers citing concerns that the cost of new federal programs would be passed onto the provinces and territories and increase the “financial burdens borne by the taxpayers.”
The new federal budget put forward $52.9 billion in new spending over the next five years, including $8.5 billion in new spending on housing. Ottawa projects a $40 billion deficit this fiscal year.
The premiers said the budget was announced after the provinces and territories had released their budgets, and contained initiatives that would impact their own spending plans. “There was limited and inconsistent outreach from the federal government in advance to ensure priorities and objectives of [provinces and territories] were considered,” the letter read.
Building More Homes
Mr. Trudeau said the premiers appear to be upset with Ottawa for “signing deals with big cities, putting money in the cities’ coffers so that they can increase density so they can build more homes faster.”“Provinces that are not being ambitious on housing, well, people in their provinces still deserve to have solutions to the housing crisis, even if the province doesn’t want to step up with the same level of ambition,” Mr. Trudeau said. “So I am unabashed about saying I am ambitious to solve problems for Canadians right across the country.”
On April 10, the Commons passed a Conservative motion demanding that Mr. Trudeau meet with provincial leaders over the carbon tax hike.
