Calvert expresses support for Williams on equalization fight
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 | 9:49 PM NT
CBC News
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Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams' fiery response to a discussion he had with Prime Minister Stephen Harper has caught the interest of Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert.
Calvert said he talked to Williams on Monday in the wake of Williams' public fight with Ottawa over possible changes to the federal equalization program.
On the weekend, Williams became furious after learning Harper was no longer reiterating his commitment to the Atlantic Accord, a deal that exempts oil and gas revenues from the equalization formula.
The deal Williams signed with former Liberal government in January 2005 is worth an extra $2 billion a year to the province's treasury. Nova Scotia also gets extra money under the deal.
Williams said that Harper, after initially promising the keep the deal, now appears to be wavering.
"This prime minister is telling me when he comes into my province, into our town, to our convention, that he hasn't made his mind up yet," Williams said after his meeting at a Progressive Conservative convention.
Calvert said Tuesday he can sympathize and phoned Williams to talk about the issue.
"Both of us take the point of view that, 'No, in fact you have made up your mind.' There's a commitment made to the people of Newfoundland and the people of Saskatchewan and it's a matter of honouring that commitment."
During the election campaign, the federal Conservatives pledged to take oil and gas out of the equalization formula for Saskatchewan, too. That and other changes promised would mean an extra $800 million a year for Saskatchewan government coffers, Calvert has said. Currently, Saskatchewan doesn't get any equalization money.
Calvert said he does not intend to take down the Canadian flags, as Williams once did, in order to get a better deal from Ottawa.
However, he said he will get more aggressive in his lobbying if the Conservatives don't keep their promise, and soon.
Equalization, the $11-billion program where Ottawa makes payments to Canada's so-called "have-not" provinces, has been discussed in both provinces as a issue that could shape the electoral map in the next federal election.
Williams said the Conservatives could expect a "goose egg" in Newfoundland if they went back on their promises.
Earlier in the year, Saskatchewan MPs expressed a similar sentiment in a letter to Harper that was later leaked to the media.
It suggested the party, which took 12 out of 14 seats in Saskatchewan, would be punished at the polls next time if Ottawa backs away from promises previously made.
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