Trudeau, premiers to talk coronavirus and blockades at first ministers' gathering
The COVID-19 outbreak and the fallout from the recent rail blockades will lead the agenda when provincial premiers sit down with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau next week in Ottawa.
CBC News has seen a draft agenda of Friday's meeting that shows the morning sessions will start with a "discussion on coronavirus" followed by a "discussion on disruption to Canada's rail service" due to recent Indigenous-led protests. The first ministers are also expected to sit down with Indigenous leaders on Thursday for a planned two-hour discussion.
Multiple sources tell CBC News that Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam is expected to brief the first ministers on the latest information about the virus's spread in Canada.
Multiple premiers offices tell CBC News that they want to focus the discussion on the real and lasting economic impacts of both the virus and the blockades.
Next Friday's agenda also includes sessions on the economy, climate and energy, health, infrastructure, fiscal stabilization and Northern priorities — issues that were brought forward from the premiers' meeting last December in Toronto.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has been leading a push for the federal government to lift the cap on the fiscal stabilization program and provide retroactive payments to Alberta. The program is intended to help provinces when they experience a sudden drop in revenues. Kenney has requested $2.4 billion from the feds because his province has been weathering an economic crisis due to cratering oil prices.
The agenda for Friday's meeting says there will be an update on the status of those discussions.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and the other provincial and territorial leaders will again call on the federal government to increase annual health care transfers to 5.2 per cent from the current three per cent.
Ford also has been pushing the federal Liberals to commit funding to a $10.9 billion subway project in Toronto.
A source said that since the Trudeau government was re-elected last October, Ford has been friendly, collaborative and constructive with the Trudeau government and has toned down the hyper-partisan rhetoric of the federal election.
But the source said that could change if there is no clear indication from Ottawa after Friday, or in the upcoming federal budget, of movement from the feds on Ontario's priorities.
