Council of the Federations meeting in Winnipeg 2023 - (Supplied File Photo)
Canada’s Premiers and Territorial leaders have concluded their annual summer meeting in Winnipeg.
The Council of the Federation meeting ended with Premiers calling for a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss infrastructure.
The leaders would like to see a national infrastructure strategy.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says one question is around the future of various federal funding initiatives for municipalities.
“So how are we going to move forward with the ICIP (Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program), the Gas Tax Program, ensuring that there is enough flexibility for municipalities to address the needs that they have wherever they may be in the nation, and those needs may be different from coast to coast to coast,” says Moe.
The Premiers also want to discuss investments needed in our ports and the corridors around them and how infrastructure can improve Canada’s competitiveness.
“Having a national strategy around infrastructure that includes things like community infrastructure, as well as those pieces that we traditionally think of the highways, the ports, the railways, is so important. So the solution that we really came to at the table is we need to have an integrated national approach to this essential infrastructure that’s going to support pieces like housing. You can’t pull one piece out without having a conversation about all of this infrastructure,” says British Columbia Premier David Eby.
Eby says the provinces can get so far on their own but need that federal partner at the table.
The leaders also discussed Canada-United States relations, trade, energy and climate change.
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