harper dinner, social ...

Premiers use Harper dinner to call for more education funding
BRUCE CHEADLE

OTTAWA (CP) - Premiers used their first dinner with Canada's new prime minister to lay out a full menu of their concerns - topped by the need for more education funding - before Stephen Harper.

Several emerged from their Friday night session with the new Conservative prime minister sounding confident their message was heard at what they described as a convivial get-together.

No new arrangements were struck and all said that nothing concrete had been expected from their first get-together with Harper, whose Tories won a minority mandate in the Jan. 23 federal vote.

"We didn't talk any deals. We didn't negotiate . . . It was intended to be an informal meeting," said Manitoba Premier Gary Doer, coming out of the dinner at 24 Sussex Drive.

"We had a first opportunity to sit down and discuss where our agendas are at."

At the top of many agendas was the need for more funding for post-secondary education and training, the topic of earlier sessions involving seven of the country's premiers.

Harper let them know that he hopes to work co-operatively with the provinces, even as he implements his own agenda, said one premier.

"He said, 'I want to proceed on the promises I made,' " said Quebec Premier Jean Charest, quoting the prime minister after their dinner.

Earlier, at a day-long summit on education and skills training, the premiers were united in calling for an immediate downpayment of $2.2 billion annually from Ottawa on education - money they say was slashed in the mid-1990s by the former Liberal government.

They want a dedicated education fund that increases by $4.9 billion in the longer term.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said the provinces want to impress upon federal leaders the urgent need for more education funding and a recognition of the importance of higher learning.

Charest told the crowd of provincial premiers and cabinet ministers, business and labour leaders, student groups and education administrators at the summit that they would be making a few suggestions to Harper on how to improve education.

"This will be his first instalment on the fiscal imbalance. And the second instalment - we will offer him a few suggestions on how he can accomplish that."

Harper himself played down expectations as he greeted his provincial counterparts on the doorstep of 24 Sussex on Friday evening.

"This meeting is about dinner - not dollars," Harper quipped to reporters standing outside his residence.

Harper also welcomed Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald just hours after MacDonald's swearing-in ceremony in Halifax.

"I'm no longer the newest first minister. He's newer than I am," Harper cracked.

The education appetizer was not the only demand on the premiers' menu. Harper's campaign vow to axe funding for a fledgling national child-care program has a number of premiers concerned.

Others, like New Brunswick's Bernard Lord, took specific requests for highway funding to the table. Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert talked a little about the Kelowna agreement on aboriginal health and housing, along with equalization reforms and agriculture funding.

All were preoccupied with what they see as a fiscal imbalance between Ottawa's revenue stream and the spending needs of the provinces and territories.

Calvert said a boost to education spending would allow Harper to address his campaign promise to address the imbalance.

"The national government can invest further in post-secondary education and we can accomplish some very significant goals for the country," he said following the dinner.

Education, stressed McGuinty, should not be seen by any level of government as simply an expenditure.

"Canada's path to prosperity travels through our colleges and universities, our graduate schools and research labs, our workplace training programs and our apprenticeships."

McGuinty opened the education summit by noting it makes little sense to demand Canada's hockey players compete against the world's best, yet fail to have the same national expectations of its higher education system.

Everybody - governments, schools, business, labour and students - has to pitch in, McGuinty said.

Harper has promised to address the funding imbalance between Ottawa and the provinces and wants to re-establish a dedicated education transfer.

But Harper has not specifically addressed the $2.2-billion request from the Council of the Federation, which represents the 10 provinces and three territorial governments.

Seven premiers attended the education summit, and all but British Columbia's Gordon Campbell were in Ottawa for the dinner with Harper.

Calvert characterized Harper as being "businesslike" during the two-hour dinner, although he said that might have been due to the shortage of time the group had to spend together.

"This is now my third prime minister in that dining room and each, of course, brings his own personality," Calvert said, making reference to former prime ministers Paul Martin and Jean Chretien.

"Mr. Harper, I think, of the three . . . is the more focused and businesslike immediately and wants to get right down to the tasks at hand."