Trudeau Pledges to ‘Go Around’ Provinces to Build Houses If Needed

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference in Vancouver on Feb. 20, 2024. The Canadian Press/Ethan Cairns

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to a letter from premiers asking Ottawa to stop overreaching into their jurisdictions with federal programs by saying he'll “go around” the provinces if needed.

“I’m going to work where I can in partnership with provinces that want to, like B.C. and others have. And places where they want to block the kinds of investments that are going to help Canadians, I’m just going to try and figure out ways to help Canadians directly,” Mr. Trudeau said during a press conference in Victoria on April 19.

The prime minister added that while he preferred to work directly with the provinces, “if we have to, I will go around them and be there for Canadians.”

Mr. Trudeau was responding to an April 19 letter from the Council of the Federation, which is made up of all 13 provincial and territorial premiers. The letter addressed the recent 2024 budget, with the premiers citing concerns that the cost of new federal programs would  be passed onto the provinces and territories and increase the “financial burdens borne by the taxpayers.”

The new federal budget put forward $52.9 billion in new spending over the next five years, including $8.5 billion in new spending on housing. Ottawa projects a $40 billion deficit this fiscal year.

The premiers said the budget was announced after the provinces and territories had released their budgets, and contained initiatives that would impact their own spending plans. “There was limited and inconsistent outreach from the federal government in advance to ensure priorities and objectives of [provinces and territories] were considered,” the letter read.

The letter also said Canada’s housing crisis could not be solved by Ottawa working with municipalities alone, and that the provinces should play a larger role in developing federal housing programs and be given more flexibility on the issue.

Building More Homes

Mr. Trudeau said the premiers appear to be upset with Ottawa for “signing deals with big cities, putting money in the cities’ coffers so that they can increase density so they can build more homes faster.”

The federal government has spent $4 billion on the Housing Accelerator Fund to provide municipalities with funding to build homes, and the recent budget allocated an additional $400 million for the program over the next four years.

“Provinces that are not being ambitious on housing, well, people in their provinces still deserve to have solutions to the housing crisis, even if the province doesn’t want to step up with the same level of ambition,” Mr. Trudeau said. “So I am unabashed about saying I am ambitious to solve problems for Canadians right across the country.”

Shortly after the federal government’s carbon tax increased on April 1, several premiers also wrote letters to Mr. Trudeau asking him to meet with them to discuss the tax. Mr. Trudeau responded in a letter that premiers would rather “make political hay” out of the carbon pricing program than present an alternative to target greenhouse gas emissions.

On April 10, the Commons passed a Conservative motion demanding that Mr. Trudeau meet with provincial leaders over the carbon tax hike.