Friday March 21, 2025 | OTTAWA, ON [reporting from VICTORIA, BC] Posted at 2:30 pm PT | Updated 4 pm & 10:35 pm
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Prime Minister Mark Carney opened his public remarks at a meeting with Canada’s Premiers today by thanking them for fighting for Canada over the past few months.
The federal government wants to work with all the provinces and territories, said Carney today, at the in-person meeting with premiers at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
Three of Canada’s premiers attended virtually today: Scott Moe (Saskatchewan), Danielle Smith (Alberta), and Andrew Furey (Newfoundland and Labrador) who is presently overseas in Japan on a trade mission.
Full agenda, new directions:
“Building millions of homes, building new trade corridors, building our energy superpower, and new commercial relations” was Carney’s outline of the agenda list. He said that all of it would be covered in the Friday afternoon meeting.
“And the only way we can do that is by working together,” said Carney to the premiers, recognizing their work “in advance of my being at the table”, said Carney today with media in the room.
“We can give ourselves as Canadians much more than anyone can take away and we can do that by working together,” said Carney.
“Catalyzing investment, ensuring that Canadian workers can work anywhere in this country as they wish, and it’s about goods moving across,” said Carney.
“It’s a time where we want to take risks and make investments and do things we hadn’t imagined possible before at a speed that we haven’t moved before,” said Carney, repeated a theme that he first launched yesterday in Edmonton.
“That’s the nature of the time, and in order to do that, we’re going to need to use at the federal level not just a commitment for cooperation which we have under my government but also additional levers (being outlined to the provincial and territorial premiers tomorrow),” the new prime minister said in Edmonton on Thursday.
“We need builders. Earlier today we brought back the level of the capital gains tax so that those who take those risks get the rewards,” said Carney today.
“We have a very charged agenda. We’re going to accomplish it all, on time, Friday afternoon,” said Carney.
Meeting outcomes:
“One project, one review, it’s time to build,” said Carney later after the meeting.
To help with cash flow at challenging times, today Carney announced that the government will defer corporate income tax payments and GST/HST remittances from April 2 to June 30, 2025, providing up to $40 billion in liquidity to businesses.
Employment Insurance (EI) will see some modest improvements, such as not having to wait a week before receiving income. No mention of structural reform to EI, a system that supports only 40% of Canadian workers.
See full report on the Prime Minister’s meeting press conference. [link to come]
Chair of the Federation:
Ontario Premier Doug Ford as the Chair of the Council of the Federation delivered some brief remarks.
“We have a an incredible first ministers table, we want to welcome you, we have incredible ministers right around this great country,” he said to Carney who was seated to his left.
“Let’s stay united as we move forward. There’s a lot of large infrastructure projects that we’d like to discuss,” said Ford, mentioning pipelines “as Premier Smith is always mentioning and I agree, going east, going west, going north, going south.”
“Developing large infrastructure projects like rail and ports along with critical minerals, the Ring of Fire,” said Ford as some examples where he hopes to see progress.
Port development is important to British Columbia. And Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew noted earlier to media that Manitoba is also a province with port potential on its northern shores.
“It’s economic war we’re facing as country,” said Ford, noting that the meeting was being held in the Canadian War Museum.
“But we’re going to stay united. We’re going to fight like we’ve never fought before, to protect our sovereignty and our interests and our economy.
===== RELATED:
- Liberal vision to build ‘one strong economy’ in response to trade war (March 21, 2025)
- Carney on tariff challenge: do things faster and at a different scale (March 20, 2025)
- Bank of Canada Governor: more uncertainty, tough decisions as trade war escalates (March 20, 2025)
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