After two days of strategizing on how to respond to the trade war U.S. President Donald Trump is waging on Canada, the premiers sat down Wednesday to discuss violent crime, drug trafficking and health care.
They’re calling on the federal government to make good on its promise to introduce legislation in the fall sitting of Parliament that will make it harder for repeat violent offenders to get bail.
The provinces have “moved in every aspect that we feel we can,” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said on his way into Wednesday’s morning meeting.
“The significant change that will have significant consequences for the people that are bringing these poisonous drugs into our communities is a change to the Criminal Code of Canada.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Canadians are “just fed up” seeing repeat violent offenders or car thieves granted bail and urged the federal government to consider using the U.S. sentencing regime as inspiration for what to do in Canada.
“We can’t release people the next day after they kick people’s doors in, put guns to people’s heads, terrorize the neighbourhood, terrorize families,” Ford said.
Ontario’s premier insisted part of the problem is “weak-kneed” judges and the only way to address that is by imposing mandatory minimum sentences.
New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt told reporters at the summit in Huntsville, Ont., that Canada’s premiers have discussed bail reform in depth and they are all on the same page.
“We need to have the flexibility at the provincial level to be tough on the people who are hard on Canadians,” she said.
That flexibility, she said, includes provinces being able to put their own limits on sentencing and bail.
During the election campaign, Prime Minister Mark Carney proposed changes to the bail system that would require repeat offenders, charged with crimes like home invasions, violent car theft or human trafficking, to prove they deserve bail before it is awarded.
Right now, prosecutors have to prove that denying someone bail is justified.
Carney also pledged to toughen sentencing guidelines to allow for consecutive sentences for violent car theft, car theft involving criminal gangs and serious and violent offences.
The premiers say they also want a boost to federal health transfers and the flexibility to address health-care delivery in a way that is tailored to the needs of each province.
Ford said the previous federal government shortchanged the provinces, and that Ontario needs more money to train and hire doctors and nurses.
“I’d like to sit down with the rest of the premiers and come up with a figure that would sustain us for the next little while,” Ford said.
Moe said the health-care needs of Canadians differ greatly from region to region, and funding has to reflect that.
“We certainly think that they should respond to the population’s needs,” Holt said. “Right now it’s a flat per-capita model but in New Brunswick we have a population that is older and that is sicker than the rest of Canada.”
Ford said he has “no problem taking care of the smaller provinces,” but he said he’s looking for a funding model that is more “fair.”
