Freeland to meet with Saskatchewan premier on Tuesday

New Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland will make a trip to Saskatchewan to meet the premier amid tense relationships between Ottawa and some western provinces. 

Premier Scott Moe will sit down with the minister on Tuesday afternoon in Regina. 

"The premier has had a positive working relationship with Minister Freeland and he looks forward to discussing issues that are facing our province," Moe's office told CBC News. 

Freeland, who was named to her new position as intergovernmental affairs minister on Wednesday, has been tasked with fixing the disintegrating bonds in the Canadian federation. Trade and natural resource troubles, plus disagreements on environmental policies, have put the federal government at odds with several of the western premiers.

The minister doesn't have her own department (it's only a secretariat), but her mission is to work with the country's top bureaucrat, Privy Council Clerk Ian Shugart, to overcome regional tensions and find ways for the federal government to respond meaningfully to the demands of the regions.

Her work will begin in Saskatchewan next week — a province that, along with Alberta, elected no Liberal MPs in last month's election. 

No friend of Ottawa

Moe has been an outspoken critic of the Liberal government in Ottawa. He's challenging its carbon tax, looking for wiggle room on controversial energy project legislation and searching for any sign Ottawa is willing to hear his priorities. 

After meeting with the prime minister last week, Moe said he was "disappointed" and saw little to suggest Trudeau had learned the lesson the Prairies tried to teach him with their votes. 

Freeland disagreed. 

"That's a serious message," she said on an interview with CBC Radio's The House. "Voters are saying ... that our government has some work to do in listening."

Moe is also demanding a change in the way equalization is calculated, and has hired former prime minister Stephen Harper to help the province expand its trading relationships in Asia rather than relying on the Trudeau government.

All the provincial premiers and the territorial leaders have a meeting scheduled for Dec. 2 in Toronto. It's unknown if Freeland will attend or has been invited.