Trudeau and premiers meet to talk climate change
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gathers Monday in Ottawa with the 13 provincial and territorial premiers for the first first ministers’ meeting in almost seven years.

TheStar.com
Nov. 22, 2015
Robert Benzie

It has been 2,502 days since Canada’s first ministers last sat down at the same table.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gathers Monday in Ottawa with the 13 provincial and territorial premiers it will be the first such meeting since Jan. 16, 2009.

Stephen Harper, the prime minister at the time, had little use for group discussions with the premiers and shunned the sessions after that brief summit on the economy.

There has been so much political change in Canada since then that veteran Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is the only current first minister who has actually attended a first ministers’ meeting.

But with Harper’s defeat last month, Trudeau hopes to usher in a new era of federal-provincial co-operation — and get Canada’s political leaders on the same page as they head en masse to the United Nations conference on climate change in Paris next week.

During his first foreign trip, the new prime minister called climate change an “urgent and pressing reality that we need to address.”

“I was glad to highlight that not only is Canada here to do its part, but our part includes putting pressure and encouraging other countries to step up in their commitments so we can ensure that the outcome of Paris is as ambitious and as optimistic as we need it to be,” Trudeau said Thursday in Manila, where he was attending a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders.

Since taking office, Trudeau has signalled the environment will be a priority for his government, an approach warmly embraced by the White House and a contrast to Harper’s Conservative government.

With so many different Canadian representatives — from Ottawa, provinces, and cities — headed to Paris, the prime minister said one goal of Monday’s meeting is to make sure that message gets delivered on the world stage.

“One of our desires is to ensure that all the different Canadians speaking from all different perspectives pass a very similar message, that Canada is going to step up and do its part to ensure that we reduce climate-change causing emissions and that we continue to encourage all other countries and partners to do their part as well,” Trudeau told reporters.

The leaders will receive a briefing by top climate scientists Monday afternoon followed by a working dinner, then an evening news conference.

Trudeau is hopeful he and the premiers will be able to reach some sort of national consensus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to craft a “strong and cohesive message we will be delivering as Canadians in Paris.”

Premier Kathleen Wynne, the prime minister’s closest political ally among the provincial leaders, said she’s “hoping … we’ll have some consensus around the table.”

“We haven’t had an opportunity to have that discussion. There have been accords that have been signed onto by the premiers, but we’ve never had the opportunity to have that discussion with the prime minister. So I’m hoping that there will be a consensus position that will come out of that meeting,” she said Thursday in Toronto.

Wynne, who famously sparred with Harper on everything from the environment to pensions, said the fact a first ministers’ meeting is even happening is cause for optimism.

“It’s very exciting for the country that we’re going to have an opportunity as premiers to sit down with the prime minister and work to forge some national positions and some agreement across the country on how we’re going to present ourselves to the world — particularly on this issue of climate change.”

Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard agreed the provinces “have a large role to play” in developing a plan to curb the carbon pollution that contributes to global warming.

“One of the priorities that we should work on is to redefine or rebrand the Canadian message in Paris,” Couillard said in Ottawa on Friday.

“Yes, we are a major oil-producing country, but we are also one of the most important producers of renewable energy in the world. This has to be part of the story,” he said.

Couillard noted that Ontario entering into a cap-and-trade system with Quebec, which puts a price on carbon and creates an economic incentive to lower greenhouse gas emissions, is a radical change for Canada.

“With Premier Wynne’s decision to join the cap-and-trade system and (British Columbia’s) carbon tax, soon 70 per cent … of the Canadian population will be living in a jurisdiction which has a very strong pricing … in carbon,” the Quebecer said.

“This is not known abroad and it should be known in part of our identity as well in our message in Paris.”

The Premiers

Kathleen Wynne
ONTARIO
Liberal
Age: 62
In power since: 2013
Wynne's favourite gay icon is Canadian Grammy and Juno award winner k.d. lang.

Philippe Couillard
QUEBEC
Liberal
Age: 58
In power since: 2014
To get pumped up for a rally, Couillard listens to Led Zeppelin's Black Dog.

Christy Clark
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Liberal
Age: 50
In power since: 2011
Clark has been a Vancouver Whitecaps season ticket holder for close to 10 years.

Rachel Notley
ALBERTA
NDP
Age: 51
In power since: 2015
Notley is a reformed smoker who doesn't like mornings, as she told the Star's Tim Harper.

Greg Selinger
MANITOBA
NDP
Age: 64
In power since: 2009
Selinger both studied and taught social work at the University of Manitoba.

Brad Wall
SASKATCHEWAN
Saskatchewan Party (conservative)
Age: 49
In power since: 2007
One of Wall's favourite Christmas presents as a child was a board game about the Canadian economy and politics.

Stephen McNeil
NOVA SCOTIA
Liberal
Age: 51
In power since: 2013
McNeil has 17 siblings and his mother was the first female sheriff in Canada.

Brian Gallant
NEW BRUNSWICK
Liberal
Age: 33
In power since: 2014
Gallant's high school principal Luc Michaud once told him he had the qualities of a future premier.

Paul Davis
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
Progressive Conservative
Age: 54
In power since: 2014
In a storied police career, Davis was awarded the Crime Stoppers Police Officer of the Year, Canada 125 medal and Queen's Jubilee medal.

Wade MacLauchlan
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Liberal
Age: 61
In power since: 2015
MacLauchlan became the first openly gay male premier in P.E.I.

Darrell Pasloski
YUKON
Yukon Party (conservative)
Age: 55
In power since: 2011
Pasloski owned several Shoppers Drug Mart stores before running for office.

Bob McLeod
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Independent
Age: 63
In power since: 2011
McLeod spent 18 months in hospital as a four-year-old after contracting tuberculosis.

Peter Taptuna
NUNAVUT
Non-partisan
Age: 59
In power since: 2013
Taptuna was a member of the first and only all-Inuit drilling crew on an offshore rig in the Beaufort Sea