Provincial leaders meet with Harper about economy
Jonathan Fowlie, David Akin, Andrew Mayeda
Sun
Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with Canada’s provincial premiers and territory leaders in Ottawa Monday to allow them to share their ideas and concerns about the economy. Photograph by : Blair Gable, Reuters
Premier Gordon Campbell was in Ottawa Monday trying to convince federal and provincial leaders to embark on a “major initiative” to build housing for seniors, first nations and the homeless.
“There are literally hundreds of thousands of construction workers across the country who we want to keep at work,” Campbell said after a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canada‘s provincial and territorial leaders.
“Housing to meet the challenges of an aging population, to meet the challenges of homelessness, and to meet the challenges of first nations communities would be a very strong economic package that we could put together.”
Held in advance of the G-20 meeting in Washington next weekend, Monday’s gathering was intended to allow provincial and territorial leaders to share their ideas and concerns about the economy. Alberta‘s Ed Stelmach, who was in Europe on a trade mission, was the only premier not to attend. Education Minister Dave Hancock attended in his place.
Calling the meeting “cordial and productive,” Harper said he was eager to hear what the premiers had to say.
“We did not agree on everything, but there were many common themes and I’m pleased that every one of our positions received a full and fair hearing,” he said.
Harper added that despite some differences, the leaders all agreed that investment in the country’s infrastructure is the best and fastest way to use public funds to help Canada avoid the worst of a global economic recession.
“We all agreed that we should see infrastructure spending accelerated. This will help support general economic activity,” he said.
“I am very confident that is going to occur over the next year.”
Campbell — who called for accelerated infrastructure spending in his economic update last month — said on Monday he pushed his housing idea as one way to spend that infrastructure money.
“One of the things that I suggested is we should look at a major initiative around housing,” Campbell said, adding he does not yet have any specific projects in mind.
“We’ve got the builders who can build these places now,” he added. “Let’s try and keep them busy.”
New Democratic Party finance critic Bruce Ralston said Campbell took the idea from the economic address B.C. NDP leader Carole James gave last month.
“He’s adopted Carole James’s initiative she put forward in her speech two weeks ago,” said Ralston.
“He’s been caught flatfooted so he’s scrambling around for ideas.”
New spending on housing projects was not part of the 10-point plan Campbell delivered during his economic update last month.
In its first three budgets, the Harper government set aside more than $37 billion in infrastructure spending.
While a portion of that money is already being spent on some projects, billions more are waiting for everything from building permits to federal bureaucratic approval.
“We’re committed to doing everything we can to expedite the paperwork,” Infrastructure Minister John Baird said in a telephone interview.
But provinces and municipalities need to do their bit as well, identifying projects and hiring designers and construction crews.
“We need accountability and we need to do our due diligence,” Baird said. “But we don’t want to take years to do this.”
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
