'We want to make sure we get our share'
Infrastructure funding, Trump and cannabis legalization top premiers' priority list at national meeting
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Monday, August 7, 2017
EDMONTON
Concerns over trade, cannabis legislation and federal infrastructure funding topped the list of hot topics at a gathering of the nation's premiers in Alberta last month, according to the territory's premier.
Bob McLeod: NWT premier says territory needs to look into how it can access billions of dollars in federal infrastructure. |
Bob McLeod, who was joined by 11 of Canada's 13 premiers for Council of the Federation's biannual meeting in Edmonton July 17 to 21, said other leaders at the table were most concerned about U.S. President Donald Trump's trashing of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the impending legalization of marijuana.
"There were a lot of concerned discussions on cannabis," said McLeod.
He said the federation set up a joint committee among the country's provinces and territories during the summit. The group plans to come up with a strategy and a finalized document to submit to the federal government by November.
"There are some things we need federal leadership on: taxation, revenue, how it is going to be regulated, how to deal with drug-impaired driving, production and commercialization," he said.
"We are well on our way to getting the work done but there's lots of areas where there's lots of questions."
Another area of concern for provinces, especially those that trade a great deal with America, is the pressure being felt by Trump's challenges to NAFTA. Those sentiments were reinforced by a speech from David MacNaughton, the Canadian ambassador to America, in which he encouraged premiers to be proactive by reaching out to politicians at the state level.
"He said governors are willing to help us," said McLeod. "A possible strategy would be to come up with a package that would be acceptable to the governors and have them take that to President Trump."
McLeod said the NWT has not been impacted by new American tariffs as much as other provinces and territories. However, he pointed out the U.S. is one of the biggest diamond markets in the world.
One concern specific to the NWT which McLeod raised at the meeting is the need for the federal infrastructure funding to be more flexible in the coming years.
The federal government's 2017 budget allocated $100 billion to address Canada's infrastructure shortfall over the next 11 years.
"We recently received a letter from the minister of infrastructure which gave us an indication of the magnitude of the numbers," said McLeod.
The issue with the new pot of money is that because the NWT is a small territory it has a small borrowing limit.
"We want to make sure we get our share," he said.
The premiers also discussed federal funding for skills and jobs, climate change, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women inquiry, and the need to revamp Nutrition North.
