Reply from the Prime Minister of Canada

Dear Premier:

Thank you for your letter regarding your province’s funding priorities under the Safe Restart Agreement and implementation of shared objectives under the seven priority areas.

This letter confirms receipt of your correspondence and fulfillment of the condition under which funds can be transferred. This funding will help ensure that Canadians have what they need to safely restart the economy through measures to increase testing and contact tracing, and by supporting the capacity of health care systems. It will also assist in the procurement of personal protective equipment to help our essential workers, and in protecting the most vulnerable, like our seniors. Municipalities will also be supported so that they can deliver the essential services that Canadians rely on every day, like public transit. In addition, this Agreement will helps ensure the availability of safe child care to help our collective return to work, and provide income support to those who do not have paid sick leave.

The collaboration between our governments over the last number of months has been critical to Canada’s ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Team Canada approach has enabled a robust and rapid response to help ensure the health and safety of Canadians, and I am glad we reached agreement on the critical needs to help safely reopen the economy, protect Canadians, and minimize the impacts of future waves of COVID-19.

The Safe Restart Agreement and our ongoing joint efforts will enable Canada to be in the best position possible to respond as the nature of the pandemic evolves, and it will be important to communicate the results of the Agreement to Canadians in a timely, collaborative, and comprehensive manner. The Agreement is also in addition to the federal investment of up to $2 billion to provinces and territories in support of your efforts to reopen schools in a safe manner and make further adaptations, as required, during the upcoming school year. 

I look forward to continuing our discussions and advancing joint work at the First Ministers table as we have been doing so for the past many months on behalf of all Canadians.

I am forwarding, for their information, a copy of our exchange of correspondence to Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance; and Dominic LeBlanc, President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Sincerely,