Minister meets with federal ministers in Ottawa

Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Tom Lush met with federal ministers in Ottawa last week on several issues of mutual interest. Minister Lush met with St�phane Dion, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Jane Stewart, Minister of Human Resources Development Canada, and Minister Denis Coderre, Minister of Immigration.

In his meeting with Minister Dion, Minister Lush expressed his disappointment with the current Equalization Program and pressed for further changes to the program. "I expressed to Minister Dion that the Equalization Program is not working the way it should, that it is not fulfilling its constitutional obligation to enable provinces to �offer reasonably comparable levels of public service at reasonably comparable levels of taxation,�" said Minister Lush.

Minister Lush also reiterated to Minister Dion the province�s right, under the Atlantic Accord, to receive a fairer share of our own offshore resource revenues by eliminating or reducing the tax back rate on offshore resource developments.

"Minister Dion and I had a constructive discussion in which I shared with him our views on issues including equalization and I am confident that he will take my comments on these issues under due consideration," said Minister Lush.

Minister Lush met with Minister Jane Stewart regarding the federal skills and learning agenda and goals for education and social development in the province. "I was pleased that Minister Stewart was recently in the province following the launch of Knowledge Matters, which provides a framework for a possible strategy to address the skills and learning agenda in Canada," said Minister Lush. "As a province, we remain keenly interested in this issue and I expressed to Minister Stewart our willingness to work with the federal government on initiatives to improve the quality of life for our citizens."

In his first meeting with newly appointed Immigration Minister Denis Coderre, the two ministers discussed several issues, including the need for an increased Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) presence in the province.

"I expressed concern to Minister Coderre over the lack of adequate CIC presence in the province where we have seen a decrease of five CIC locations in the past to currently just two locations in Gander and St. John�s," said Minister Lush. "I was pleased that Minister Coderre agreed to review this issue further and I look forward to us sharing a cooperative working relationship."

Media contact: Tansy Mundon, Communications, (709) 729-1341.

2002 03 01                        12:55 p.m.