Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada’s premiers agreed to work toward a jointly-drafted set of national guidelines on reopening the economy during their weekly conference call this afternoon.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada’s premiers agreed to work toward a jointly-drafted set of national guidelines on reopening the economy during their weekly conference call this afternoon.
Federal and provincial sources say they hope to have a common set of guiding principles finalized by next week.
“We ought to signal to Canadians there is a national standard, a national way of doing things, even if they are going to happen at different times.” said a senior federal official speaking on background. “I think that there was broad consensus, as long as there is flexibility.”
Flexibility will be critical, as several provinces are already taking steps to revive their economies. Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have released multi-step plans. Ontario and Quebec are poised to do the same next week.
A ‘degree of flexibility’
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs confirmed the prime minister asked the premiers to submit ideas to develop national guidelines with a goal of moving quickly.
“It’s certainly relevant to have a national program that we follow. As you recall, I was looking for that sort of standardization on the other end of this pandemic, so we would have some consistency across the country,” Higgs told Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos.
“Having said that, I do believe every province is in their own unique situation and, as such, we won’t all be on the same page. Our degree of flexibility to move is very dependent on our provincial situation.”
The prime minister has said publicly that the provinces and territories will make their own final decisions on when pandemic measures are relaxed in their jurisdictions.
Cross-border concerns
But the sense at the federal level is that, as each province takes ste