Braid: Handshake about Smith’s image on a day of health-care confusion

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A full day of high-level well being care talks boiled down to at least one picture, the awkward handshake between Prime Minister Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

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It was an ideal expression of Smith’s dizzying ambivalence in the direction of Ottawa. She needs to seem cheap (there’s a whole lot of well being cash at stake), however not too pleasant, in order to not anger the various Trudeau haters in her get together.

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Lengthy remembered is the champion toast between former Premier of Alberta, Peter Lougheed and Trudeau the First, after they struck a slack oil worth deal in 1981.

Lougheed by no means lived within the footage. Smith was not about to feed an analogous frenzy.

The handshake additionally performed one other manner. Many noticed Smith’s angle as an indication of amateurish, irreverent incompetence. Notion relies upon totally on political desire.

On well being funding, Trudeau himself has been terribly annoying.

The Prime Minister of Canada nearly by no means solutions questions. He even misphrases questions. On one reporter’s quest for readability, he started “as you simply mentioned,” when she mentioned the precise reverse.

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Not surprisingly, confusion ensued.

The Fed is providing $46.2 billion in new well being funding to the provinces over 10 years, far lower than the 13 premiers demanded.

And what precisely does Trudeau imply? Is it a proposal, a launching pad for additional negotiations? Or is it an imposed coverage that have to be enshrined within the federal budgets?

Trudeau appears to have implied each. The one factor he was actually adamant about was that provinces should adjust to the Canada Well being Act or face refunds of funding.

The prime ministers, considerably dazed, mentioned they’d go residence to search out out after which maintain conferences.

Trudeau was very clear on one level – there will likely be separate talks with all 13 provinces and territories to work out agreements particular to every.

Whether or not this may contain cash over and above what’s now supplied (or imposed) has not been defined.

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From a well being care perspective, separate offers may very well be a great factor, as they’d give attention to the particular wants of every province and territory.

Politically, nevertheless, Trudeau is undermining provincial unity by separating the premiers to enter into their very own native agreements.

The prime ministers have been remarkably united on well being care funding for 2 years. Most significantly, they demanded $28 billion in new cash a 12 months.

Ottawa is now providing $4.6 billion and separate agreements. The prime ministers can nonetheless voice their earlier calls for, however self-interest will prevail as soon as they’re in detailed talks.

Barely talked about is Smith’s separate assembly with Trudeau about federal plans for “simply transition” for vitality employees.

Smith repeated the calls for she made to Trudeau in a latest letter: Abandon the simply transition label, agree that there’s a future for oil and gasoline, proceed to assist the normal business, and rather more.

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Trudeau mentioned there was such a future, with out acknowledging that new emissions targets for 2030 would probably pressure manufacturing cuts.

That was about it. Throughout an extended information convention, the PM didn’t rail in opposition to the Smith assembly. For official Ottawa, it is simply one other gust of west wind.

The most recent infuriating flip in equalization, which the ever-irritating Smith exploited to win workplace, was additionally talked about above.

So-called “have” provinces with excessive tax-generating economies are usually not alleged to obtain equalization funds.

Ontario is unquestionably in that league; however this 12 months the biggest county will obtain an equalization verify of $421 million.

How this occurs is ably defined by College of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe in an article printed by the Hub.

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It is clearly very difficult, however principally there was leftover equalization cash that needed to go someplace, and Ontario is the one province that would get it with out upsetting the fragile stability of haves/have-nots.

Nothing is alleged, in fact, concerning the delicate political stability between Liberal Ottawa and all-important Ontario voters.

You would possibly ask why $421 million could not go to provinces or territories the place it is actually wanted, or be held in interest-bearing reserve, or used to pay down debt.

However it’ll make sense. It had no place in any respect in Tuesday’s transactions.

Don Braid’s column seems commonly within the Herald.

Twitter: @DonBraid