Premier Scott Moe (Lisa Schick/CJME)

By Lisa Schick/CJME

Moe hoping for consensus at Council of the Federation meeting

Dec 1, 2019 | 11:04 AM

Premier Scott Moe will be leading the Council of the Federation in Toronto on Sunday and Monday, and is hoping to get all the premiers to agree on a few points.

The heads of all the provinces and territories are gathering in Toronto, and Moe said it’s happening because of the federal election. He was contacted by a number of premiers who wanted to come together to talk after the divisive results from Oct. 21.

“I look forward to the discussion that we’re going to have and I’m hopeful — truly hopeful — that we are going to come to consensus as premiers across this nation on two or three items and provide that to our federal government as some direction,” Moe said before leaving for Toronto.

Moe said he thinks the premiers can come to agreements on amendments to the fiscal stabilization formula.

“(The goal is) to ensure that that program can do what it was designed to do to be a reactive program for all provinces — not just today but into the future,” Moe said.

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Moe said at the Council of the Federation meeting in Saskatoon, the premiers came to a virtual consensus on the idea that provinces should be in charge of their climate change policies, and he’s hoping to reaffirm that at this meeting.

He also thinks an agreement can be had on recognizing that the provinces have problems with the environmental assessment legislation, and that they need to be addressed through legislative amendments.

Moe is hopeful of that, despite the fact that the heads of the provinces have disagreed on some of the points on climate change and pipelines in the past.

“We’re going to have good conversations. I’m going to preclude what British Columbia is going to say (and) what Quebec is going to say. They have premiers that are going to bring the views of their people and I’m looking forward to the discussion,” said Moe.

Moe said this meeting is very important because it was requested by premiers in the wake of the federal election. He said whatever comes out of the meeting is indicative of what the federal government should be paying attention to, and it should be taken as sound advice.

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