Next January 16, Canada's prime minister, whomever that might be, will host a meeting of the country's premiers and territorial leaders. This is a followup meeting to the one that Prime Minister Stephen Harper held last month in Ottawa.
Harper issued the following invitation this afternoon but it remains to be seen if he himself will be able to attend the meeting:
OTTAWA – On November 10, 2008, the Prime Minister met with Canada’s Provincial Premiers and Territorial Leaders to discuss ways that Canada’s different orders of government can cooperate in responding to the current global economic crisis.
Building on the productive discussions of that meeting, Prime Minister Harper issued an invitation today to Canada’s Provincial Premiers and Territorial Leaders for a follow-up First Ministers’ Meeting, to be held on January 16, 2009. This day-long meeting will be accompanied by a session with Aboriginal Leaders on economic development opportunities for Aboriginal Canadians.
A critical objective of this meeting will be to identify issues related to accelerating infrastructure investments, strengthening financial market regulation, improving competitiveness and ensuring labour market preparedness and flexibility where immediate government actions will make positive economic impacts.
This First Ministers’ Meeting will build on the concrete work and recommendations of responsible Ministers in the meantime. To this end, the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Finance Ministers will meet on December 16 and 17, 2008 in Saskatoon. The federal Infrastructure Minister John Baird will work with all provinces and territories to identify and to accelerate, before the First Ministers’ Meeting, specific projects in each jurisdiction that would contribute to stimulating the economy in the next two construction seasons. Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, will work with her provincial and territorial counterparts to remove barriers to labour mobility, enhance skills development and foreign credential recognition.
Together, these meetings will stimulate productive discussions on economic issues of importance to Canadians and ensure that all governments continue to work together to prepare Canada’s economy for a strong future.