EDITORIAL: Stay in your lane, do your own job

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The annual meeting of the country’s provincial premiers flew under the radar this week, making few headlines.

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The premiers most frequently requested that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stick to his federal lane and let them get on with their jobs.

Trudeau has been making incursions into provincial jurisdictions with announcements that are not his responsibility and encroach on provincial responsibilities.

Among those items is the Pharmacare plan insisted upon by New Democratic Leader Jagmeet Singh, to ensure his party’s support for the Liberal minority government. Most provinces already have drug programs for seniors and low-income residents. Trudeau has also announced a dental plan and a school lunch program. Health care is a provincial responsibility, as is education. Lunch programs are in place across the country.

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Then there’s housing. As the premiers were talking in Halifax, Trudeau, alongside Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, announced a $30-billion plan to fund housing — by his rules. And the money won’t arrive for another two years.

The provinces were noticeably bypassed.

Meanwhile, at their East Coast lobster fest, the premiers begged the federal government to live up to its responsibility to allocate 2% of Gross Domestic Product toward defence funding as part of Canada’s commitment to NATO.

There are rumblings south of the border that if Donald Trump becomes president again, he could retaliate to our foot-dragging. He may tie our NATO funding to trade. Or we could get dumped from the G-7.

An estimated $900 billion in trade crosses the U.S.-Canada border annually. If Trump’s threat materializes, it would cause immense damage to the economic stability of this country.

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“It’s really important we meet those obligations on the world stage,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston told reporters last week.

“For Canada and its relationships with the U.S., we are significant trading partners, we want them to respect us fully, in all aspects, including our ability to honour obligations.”

Under pressure from other NATO members at the 75th anniversary meeting last week, Trudeau said this country hopes to meet the 2% target by 2032.

He should stop meddling in provincial affairs and speed that up. His job is to maintain this country’s worldwide reputation as a nation of substance that can be trusted to deliver on its promises.

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