Premiers To Meet In Montreal Monday To Discuss Global Financial Crisis

Quebec Premier Jean Charest smiles for cameras prior to a meeting of the Council of the Federation to discuss economic matters in Montreal, Monday, Oct. 20, 2008. (Paul Chiasson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Premiers To Meet To Discuss Global Financial Crisis -- CBC

PM declines Charest's invitation to attend unscheduled meeting on economy

The state of the economy is to be the main focus when Canada's premiers and territorial leaders meet on Monday amid worries the global financial turmoil will cost further jobs and other losses in their regions.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper declined an invitation to participate in the unscheduled meeting in Montreal, but has said he will hold a first ministers' meeting of his own later this year.

A provincial and territorial meeting right now may provide little more than a chance for those leaders to commiserate as banks around the world face collapse and global markets continue to post record loses, the CBC's James Fitz-Morris reported from the conference.

Earlier this month, the country's top economists predicted Canada is headed into a worse recession than anyone expected, one that could last until almost 2010, as the country faces a financial perfect storm of a sputtering U.S. economy, tumbling oil prices and falling domestic demand that will hurt the country's growth prospects for the next few months.

The manufacturing sectors in Ontario and Quebec have been suffering for some time, while instability in oil prices has seen that resource plunge last week to lose half its value from last summer.

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