B.C. premier eyes court challenge over federal funding | Power Play with Mike Le Couteur

well Equalization payments could be the next big battle between the premieres and the federal government now in case you didn’t know about them it’s that formula by which federal tax dollars are distributed to poor provinces to correct fiscal imbalances now results in these so-called Have and Have Not provinces BC Premier David eie is upset because Quebec was given money to help with the migrant crisis but his Province isn’t getting Federal help on projects including flood mitigation in the valleys so EB is considering joining New Finland and Labrador in a court challenge over Federal Equalization payments so will it work let’s bring in the front bench to discuss this Sabrina Grover was a federal liberal candidate in the 2021 election she’s a senior adviser at spark advocacy and Northstar public affairs Melanie Pari is a former communications director to ainl she’s now the president of texture Communications and former Ontario NDP MPP geran Singh he’s now vice president at crestf strategies he’s also the brother of federal NDP leader jug meet Singh welcome to you all on this wonderful Friday Sabrina you’re in Calgary and it’s been a complaint of Western provinces for a long time so does David eie make a compelling point on this one yeah as an Alberton we’re Bor uh like straight out of the womb you get the talking points on Equalization so it’s a pretty big part of our life and our complaints here in this province um you know I think in Alberta certainly that Equalization myth has been debunked time and time again uh by economists and I think a lot of that has to do with actually understanding the formula of how Equalization works and understanding the differences between the health transfer the social transfer and then these broad kind of like Equalization payments that exist um you know I think that in general the technical side of it is that these payments are based on the revenue based in the provinces it’s also based on the population size of the provinces specifically when it comes to the health transfer and the social transfer so that does technically equal out across these provinces and Alberta is constantly complaining that we you know we give in so much to these equal the payments um and then we get nothing out of it but a lot of it has to do with the tax revenue and things like that in your Province as well at the end of the day do I think BC has a leg to stand on probably not uh but do I think that they want to pick does do I think that Dave eie wants to pick a fight with Ottawa and show that he’s moving uh on these files in advance of an election which is going to be super tight with the conservatives probably yes and I think it’s more of a political move uh on getting him further in that process than anything else uh certainly um is going to result in a in a core challenge yeah Melanie it seems like there’s nothing like a good old fight over Equalization p uh payments and there’s nothing like a picking a fight with the federal government just before an election so do you think that that’s really what’s behind it here well I think that actually the root cause here is that the Prime Minister hasn’t been meeting with the premier uh in in years so December 2018 was the last time that there was a first Minister’s meeting for this country and so the premieres have been sending letters they’ve been meeting with the Council of the Federation every year and they’ve they’ve been trying to urge the the prime minister to come to the table and sit down with them to talk about these important issues and he just hasn’t been doing it in about a month the the premier will be meeting at the Council of federation in Halifax and that’s going to be another opportunity for them to to talk amongst themselves anyway about these challenges and then likely present to united front once again as they often do in raising the issues of of the day um that are facing their provinces with with the Prime Minister but they always do it via like a letter and and a press conference because the Prime Minister doesn’t show up uh this is in keeping with his approach to the pharmacare bill where they have not consulted liberal government is not consulted with with any of the premieres about how that’s going to roll out even though the provinces are going to be the ones funding it and and deploying it so I think at the end of the day this really comes down to a complete lack of Engagement by the prime minister’s office and this government with with the premieres and they could do a lot better on that front if they just got to the table with the premieres Geron is it as simple as that sit down with the premier is that what the Prime Minister should be doing here even though I mean he did have that uh big meeting here in Ottawa when it was over uh Health transfers and trying to hammer out deals uh and a lot of those were customized to the provinces but do you think that that’s the key here sit down with them and a lot of this uh won’t happen or is he just inviting Problems by going to one of their meetings I think first and foremost the Prime Minister needs to meet and connect with premiers across this country that is incredibly important keep in mind the unique nature of Canada’s federalism where we have provinces and territories that have an immense amount of Independence and need to be respected by the Prime Minister who needs to have those proper engagements with each and every uh Min uh Premier across this country in addition to that though I think when we look at this issue forward right now it’s not just a political issue it’s an issue about fairness I think above anything and I think Jing the Liberals right now they can’t afford to have further fights with Premier right now over issues around fairness given their issues around polling right now and their own favorability I think it’s really incumbent to the prime minister to be assertive and and and really take a positive step in this matter and address this immediately so he can then not have to worry about having multiple fights on multiple fronts yeah and Sabrina that meeting was February of 2023 here in Ottawa for healthcare uh but does it really change things when you consider that David eie does have the liberal premere of New Finland and Labrador also in his corner I certainly think that uh by doing this joint challenge with New Finland he’s strengthening his case and he’s making it sort of a cross-country uh situation as opposed to just BC fighting uh fighting this fight on its own but I think again right like it it doesn’t come down to Equalization I think if Dave eie has some problems on uh migration on immigration and that’s specifically what he’s looking to get funding for then he should take that concern to the provin or take that concern to Ottawa and negotiate on that I think this larger fight over Equalization mischaracterizes Equalization it mischaracterizes the transfers that the provinces are already getting and uh kind of misleads BC uh British Colombians into thinking that they do deserve more when in fact the process has been equalized and is you know currently operating uh fairly and so I think that for this particular problem he’s going to have to maybe negotiate more with Mark Miller on on just migration that he’s going to get anything out of an equalization fight Millan is it just an easy fight to pick though and and I want to sort of go back to that question he’s just a few months away from an election so is this a bit of a rabbit out of the hatrick sort of going hey look what I got here um don’t you want me to fight for you on this one every citizens of British Columbia absolutely but it’s also a winning one like it’s it’s a good it’s a good strategy it’s also a good strategy for internal diplomacy because what one of the things that the premier are learning they have learned over the past couple years in dealing with the with the Trudeau government is that Quebec has long played um a much more hard ball in in their diplomacy with with the federal government um and they get what they want out of out of it whereas the provinces that have been playing nice aren’t getting anything and so you see provinces starting to wake up and Premier is saying like Alberta is a great example and now British Columbia Newland are saying maybe we need to start throwing a couple punches around here too if if we want to get what we want for our citizens and so they’re de they’re standing up and they’re demonstrating that they’re going to be Fighters for their Prov for the people who live in their Province uh and push to get what they want and I bet you that they’re they’re probably going to get some results out of it

Panellists weigh in on B.C.’s premier joining a potential court fight against the feds over ‘unfair’ equalization payments between provinces.

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