WINNIPEG - Canada's provincial and territorial leaders haven't formerly met yet but they appear to already clash over the need for more federal stimulus cash.
Wednesday, on the eve of the premiers' big summer meeting, New Brunswick and Manitoba premiers called for more federal spending.
Manitoba's Greg Selinger told QMI Agency he doesn’t want to pre-empt the premiers' discussions Thursday, but said there "is a real interest" in continuing training programs.
"We believe the economic recovery needs to be sustained by expanding opportunities to Canadians to get practical skills to participate in the labour market," he said.
Many of the training and apprenticeship programs included in the federal government's economic action plan will expire at the end of March 2011.
New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham said federal cash helped Canada dig itself out of economic turmoil and more was now needed to protect the country from a possible double-dip recession.
"All provinces and territories have invested significantly to support economic stimulus at a time when the economy needed it," he said in a press release. "We must ensure that, as we move forward, all governments, including the federal government, work together to support continued economic growth."
But Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall told the Canadian Press earlier this week more spending is a bad idea and ballooning government budgets need to be reigned in.
In the long term, debt reduction and lower taxes "serves economic growth much better than a temporary stimulus," he told CP.
The Conservative government's controversial decision to make the mandatory long-form census voluntary is not on the official agenda, but Selinger, who chairs this week's meetings, said he's sure it will come up.
The census data is a very important source of information, he said.
"We will look for ways that we can continue to have the information we need to provide good health services, education services to Canadians and we will talk together about whether there is a place were we can all agree on making a recommendation to the federation government on how we can get that kind of information."
Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island have all raised concerns about the loss of vital statistics.
Some of the premiers were in Churchill, Man., Wednesday to meet with First Nation, Metis and Inuit leaders.
The premiers decided they want a meeting with Ottawa to push for better education programs as the population of young aboriginal people explodes, Selinger said.
The premiers are also calling for a national task force on missing aboriginal women to co-ordinate all the various efforts to ensure "we get good results," he noted.
The Council of the Federation, the group of 13 provincial and territorial premiers, is meeting Thursday and Friday in Winnipeg to discuss the economic recovery, improving the quality of water, health care and Canada-U.S. relations.
althia.raj@sunmedia.ca
