In a federation like Canada, the central and provincial orders of government share the powers of the state. In many cases, the two can manage their own affairs without having to negotiate anything with the other.
Posted at 1:00 p.m.
However, when a crisis of such magnitude as the one we are going through intervenes – alas! – still at this time, it is inevitable that the partners collaborate, in order to establish a coherent and global game plan. Much of this cooperation is through what is called intergovernmental relations. But what exactly are we referring to? And what lessons can we draw from the past two years to improve the organization of intergovernmental relations in the country?
Cooperate in a federal system
Somewhat schematically, we can distinguish between intergovernmental relations that are vertical in nature and those that are horizontal in nature. The first concerns the set of practices, mechanisms and institutions according to which the key players of the federal government and one or more provinces come to cooperate to manage various aspects of political life in the country. These exchanges bring together prime ministers or ministers or even senior civil servants, and serve to take stock of a range of issues (environment, immigration, health, etc.). Vertical intergovernmental relations may include representatives of the federal government and all the provinces, or the federal government and one or a few provinces.
With regard to so-called horizontal relations, these involve certain provinces or all the provinces, but not the federal government (a representative of the latter may sometimes be invited, but only as an observer). Finally, municipalities and northern territories are also sometimes called upon to take part in one or other of these meetings.
Inspired by the work of my colleague Johanne Poirier1, we can say that in any federal system, intergovernmental relations are both omnipresent, that they adapt to the context in which they take shape and that they are essential to the proper functioning of federal democracy.
At the same time, these encounters are opaque, in that they typically take place behind closed doors and often informally between federation partners. Moreover, they tend to strengthen the power of executives at the expense of parliaments.
Indeed, intergovernmental agreements with spectacular political effects can be concluded between two governments and their civil servants, but without the whole thing being supervised by the opposition parties, the media or even the courts.
A weak link
It is common in Canadian politics to consider intergovernmental relations – especially vertical ones – as the “weak link” of our federal system, to use the expression of Martin Papillon and Richard Simeon. This is due to the fact that its main forum, the Premiers’ Conference, is not very institutionalized and there is no obligation for the Prime Minister of the country to invoke it on a regular basis. Thus, during the years when Stephen Harper was at the head of the federal government (2006-2015), only two First Ministers’ Conferences were organized.
What is more, the federal prime minister alone sets the agenda when he decides to convene the provincial partners, just as he has the freedom to interpret the outcome of the discussions in his own way.
It was with the aim of rebalancing the balance of power in this area that the Council of the Federation was created in 2003.2, under the leadership of the Premier of Quebec, Jean Charest, and his Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Constitutionalist Benoît Pelletier. The Council of the Federation is a horizontal forum, which sometimes allows the provinces to form a common front against the federal government. The provincial premiers take turns chairing it and decide together on the agenda of the meetings.
The lessons of the pandemic
Since the start of the pandemic, not a week has gone by without intergovernmental relations (horizontal and vertical, face-to-face, but above all virtually). Decoding them, however, remains extremely complex, because we only have access to a tiny part of what is negotiated and decided behind closed doors by our leaders.
Undoubtedly, this authorizes many innovations in the development of public policies and makes it possible to move forward more quickly, by circumventing the parliamentary process. Nevertheless, while our parliamentary practices have taken a beating since the start of the pandemic, where our leaders have been able to govern by decree, it might be time for Canada to modernize its main intergovernmental forums (notably the Conference of First ministers), in order to make them more regular, structured, collaborative and, above all, more transparent.
While the pandemic illustrates to what extent intergovernmental relations are an essential cog in the functioning of the federation in times of crisis, it also shows the fragility of some of our democratic practices. And what is fragile, we must try to protect it!