What is a First Ministers' Meeting?

A First Ministers' Meeting (FMM, also called a First Ministers' Conference, FMC) is a meeting of the federal Prime Minister and the 13 provincial and territorial Premiers (3 territorial premiers have been included since the 1990s, though they have observer status at constitutional meetings). FMMs are convened by the Prime Minister at the Prime Minister's discretion, typically when the federal government wishes to engage premiers on a major federal-provincial-territorial issue.

FMMs were a regular feature of Canadian constitutional life until the 1980s. Major constitutional FMMs included the 1978 First Ministers' Conference on the Constitution, the 1979 conference, the 1980 conference, the 1981 patriation conference (which produced the Kitchen Accord), the 1983 First Ministers' Conference on Aboriginal Constitutional Matters (which led to improvements in section 35 protection), the 1987 Meech Lake Accord conference, and the 1992 Charlottetown Accord conference. The 1992 Charlottetown Accord referendum failure ended regular constitutional FMMs.

Modern FMMs typically focus on health care, fiscal arrangements, climate change, and Indigenous reconciliation rather than constitutional reform. Notable recent FMMs include the 2003 First Ministers' Health Accord (under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, establishing the Canada Health Accord that lasted to 2014), the 2004 First Ministers' Meeting on Health (under Paul Martin, negotiating the federal $41 billion Health Accord), the 2014 First Ministers' Meeting on the Canada Health Transfer, the 2016 First Ministers' Meeting on the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, the COVID-19 FMMs of 2020 to 2021 (Justin Trudeau held frequent FMMs during the pandemic), and the February 7, 2023 FMM on the new Canada Health Transfer (which produced the federal $46.2 billion 10-year deal).

FMMs are conducted in private with confidential deliberations, though communiqués are typically issued at the conclusion. Premiers prepare for FMMs through prior Council of the Federation meetings, and the Council secretariat works with the Prime Minister's Office and the Privy Council Office on FMM logistics. FMMs do not have constitutional or statutory authority but produce political agreements that bind the participating governments by political convention. Federal-provincial-territorial ministers' meetings (in specific portfolios such as health, finance, education, etc.) operate alongside FMMs and provide more frequent coordination on specific issues. Modern Canadian federalism relies heavily on these intergovernmental forums for coordination on shared-jurisdiction issues.