Home | WebMail | Register or Login

      Calgary | Regions | Local Traffic Report | Advertise on Action News | Contact

Politics

Premiers to gather for a meeting in Toronto Dec. 2

Canada's provincial and territorialpremiers will meet face-to-face next monthin Toronto, CBC News has learned.

Provincial and territorial leaders spoke on the phone last week for the first time since the federal election

Canada's premiers at their meeting in Saskatoon on July 11, 2019 (left to right): Sandy Silver, Yukon; Dwight Ball, Newfoundland and Labrador; Brian Pallister, Manitoba; Stephen McNeil, Nova Scotia; Doug Ford, Ontario; Scott Moe, Saskatchewan; Francois Legault, Quebec; Blaine Higgs, New Brunswick; John Horgan, British Columbia; Jason Kenney, Alberta; and Joe Savikataaq, Nunavut. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

Canada's provincial and territorialpremiers will meet face-to-face on Dec.2in Toronto, CBC News has learned.

Last week, the leadersheld a conference call chaired by Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe to discuss the Council of the Federation's (COF) approach to engaging with the new minority Liberal government in Ottawa.

It was their first conversation since the federal electionand the first chance for Caroline Cochrane, thenew premier of the Northwest Territories, to address her colleagues.

In arelease that followed thatcall, Moe said thatthe premiers "agreed to a future meeting of the COF table before the end of the 2019 calendar year to focus on further addressing these issues."

Sources with knowledge of the meeting also told CBC News that Ontario Premier Doug Ford offered to host the gathering, so Toronto was picked for the location.

It is not yet known whether the premiers will gather for an informal dinner on the Sunday evening before the meeting a fixture of these types of gatherings.

The premiers last met in July in Saskatoon, amid heightened interprovincial and federal tensions that have continued since the federal election.

The narrow outcome of the vote has been driving talk of regional fractures within Canada, stoked by the return of the separatist Bloc Qubcoisand growing signs ofwestern alienation.

B.C. Premier John Horgansaidhe agreed with Premier Ford when he expressed his support during the call for increasingimmigration to their provinces an issue on which QuebecPremierFranois Legaultismoving in the opposite direction.

And the issue of pipelinespits Quebecand B.C. against Alberta and Saskatchewan.

An official media release with more details on December's meeting is expected by Friday.

With files from Ryan Patrick Jones