Doug Ford hosting Quebec premier in pandemic summit on economy and to prepare for possible second wave

Thestar.com
September 4, 2020
Robert Benzie

The leaders of the two provinces most ravaged by the pandemic will hold a summit next week on boosting their recession-hobbled economies and girding for a second wave of COVID-19.

Premier Doug Ford and Quebec’s Francois Legault and their senior cabinet ministers will meet next Tuesday night and Wednesday at the Hilton Toronto Airport Hotel in Mississauga.

“This summit is happening at a critical juncture in our history,” Ford said Thursday in Hamilton where he announced $37 million for new labour training to help 15,000 people upgrade their skills construction, manufacturing, trucking, information technology, and horticulture.

“As Canada’s two largest economies and most populous provinces, this significant relationship, this strong partnership, will be more important than ever as we work to counter U.S. protectionism.” he said. Ford predicted an Ontario-Quebec alliance “will be unstoppable” in North America.

Legault said it is essential for Quebec and Ontario to lead the Canadian recovery.

“Over the past few months, we have shown great solidarity as we have had to manage an unprecedented crisis,” the Quebec premier said.

“We have a lot to learn from each other and collaboration between our governments will remain critical as we strive to recover our economies safely while preparing ourselves for a potential second wave,” he said.

The two provinces plan to share the lessons they have learned since the pandemic struck in March, including the need for domestic manufacturing capacity of personal protective equipment, ventilators, and other medical gear.

Health Minister Christine Elliott, Finance Minister Rod Phillips, Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli, Infrastructure Minister Laurie Scott, Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney, and Treasury Board President Peter Bethlenfalvy will also attend.

Legault will be joined by Health Minister Christian Dube, Finance Minister Eric Girard, Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, Chair of the Conseil du Tresor and Infrastructure Minister Sonia LeBel, and Transport Minister Francois Bonnardel.

In an interview, Ontario’s finance minister said the conference will be a good opportunity for the two largest provincial governments to compare notes before the Council of the Federation meeting of the premiers later this month in Quebec City.

“We can build on an already strong relationship,” said Phillips, adding the provinces want to talk about bolstering the Canada Health Transfer payments that Ottawa distributes.

Indeed, the summit is also a chance to keep pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberal government to fund a myriad of provincial priorities, including infrastructure and broadband improvements.

Quebec, with a population of 8.5 million, has by far been the hardest-hit province followed by Ontario, home to 14.5 million people.

About 5,800 Quebecers and more than 2,800 Ontarians have died from COVID-19 since late winter. Together that is about 94 per cent of the more than 9,100 deaths in Canada.

Montreal, home to 1.8 million people, has had about 3,500 deaths compared with about 1,200 in Toronto, which has a population of about 3 million.

Quebec lost about 450,000 jobs due to the pandemic while at the peak of the coronavirus earlier this summer some 1.2 million Ontarians were thrown into unemployment.

Both provinces have been slowing recouping those job losses.