PM and premiers end meeting without promise of more money

[CHIMO]

PM and premiers end meeting without promise of more money
Last Updated Fri, 24 Feb 2006 21:45:17 EST
CBC News

Canada's prime minister and premiers have ended an amiable get-together. But the first-ever meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the premiers ended without any agreement on new money flowing from Ottawa to the provinces.

Harper, who hosted a dinner at his 24 Sussex Drive, says the premiers got exactly what he promised them: dinner. What they didn't get was a resolution to their concerns over health care, daycare and post-secondary education. They also didn't get any promises of more money.

But Quebec Premier Jean Charest, who termed the summit "a cordial meeting," isn't giving up just yet. He says the daycare deal is part of what some premiers call the fiscal imbalance.

"In dealing with post-secondary education. He's dealing with fiscal imbalance. Dealing with daycare, fiscal imbalance. Dealing with transportation, fiscal imbalance. And we'll recognize that."

New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord said the new Conservative government has a different approach to the provinces. "There's a real desire to respect provinces. So there's a new context, a new tone. And we have to build with that. We won't resolve all the issues on the first night. I don't expect that at all."

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/02/24/premiers060224.html

Seems like he has the old PC's starting to stake out their area's. All so nice and cordial.