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Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
Innisfil Enterprise
December 13, 2006
By Peter Van Loan, MP, York-Simcoe
In addition to my responsibility as Canada’s
Minister for Sport, I have also taken on the
job of Minister of Intergovernmental
Affairs. This is a job often described
by the media as the “Unity Minister.”
In our federal system, the relationship
between the provinces and the federal
government is a dominant theme. In
practice, much of what the federal
government does involves the provinces.
Federal funding for things as diverse as
health, labour training, and even some
sports initiatives involves the provinces.
Things like immigration settlement and
agricultural support will involve
federal-provincial agreements.
This means that the Minister of
Intergovernmental Affairs has some interest
and involvement with a huge range of what
the federal government does. For the
Minister, this translates into a lot more
meetings to attend, and a lot more documents
to read.
Both Federal and Provincial
Intergovernmental Affairs Ministers are in
the interesting position that we are not
fully masters of our destiny. The
Prime Minister and Premiers are the
principal decision makers in relations
between the federal government and the
provinces.
The Intergovernmental Affairs Ministers are
to a large extent diplomats, ensuring good
relations, and open lines of communication.
We handle the day-to-day issues, and a
myriad of diverse items. But the big
questions of the day are left to the First
Ministers.
Prime Minister Harper and our New Government
have adopted an approach of “open
federalism.” This has been very
successful in improving national unity and
blunting efforts by the separatists to
arouse emotions.
While political junkies find the
intergovernmental affairs area fascinating,
most people prefer not to hear about the
issues. If all is quiet, the country
is probably strongly united and working
smoothly. That’s how most Canadians
want things to be. That means a quiet
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister.
That’s how I hope things stay!
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