Alberta Fact Check: Provincial rights aren’t concessions granted from Ottawa
Quebec has long had its own pension plan, and multiple provinces have their own police forces. Somehow, these provincial rights become something that Canada must consider grudgingly granting when Alberta considers them.
In a piece in the Toronto Star, Ottawa-based writer Susan Delacourt posits, “How much are we willing to do to keep Alberta around?”
The tone implies exhaustion from Laurentian Canada with all the effort central Canadians must do to keep Albertans from wanting to leave. Just what will it take to make those ungrateful Westerners understand just how good they have it?
She then goes into areas where Canada could seek compromise and offer concessions to calm down those distant malcontents.
None of the things listed should be considered concessions. They are restorations of normal provincial authority that Alberta already possesses under the Canadian Constitution.
No other province must negotiate and battle with Ottawa to develop and export its prime trading goods to world markets. Could you imagine the federal government interfering in in Ontario’s ability to export automotive products? Or British Columbia’s massive coal exports?
Yet she treats Alberta’s quest for a pipeline to the coast as some unreasonable demand could be considered by the central authorities as a concession. Constitutionally, the federal government is supposed to facilitate interprovincial infrastructure, not hinder it.
She noted a poll indicating that nearly half of Canadians could live with ending the federal fuel and gas emissions cap on the oil and gas sector. How kind of them. Are there any caps on mining production in Ontario that Albertans have been asked about?
Delacourt pointed out indications of openness among Canadians to giving Albertans broader provincial autonomy with things such as a provincial pension plan or a provincial police force.
Quebec has long had its own pension plan, and multiple provinces have their own police forces. Somehow, these provincial rights become something that Canada must consider grudgingly granting when Alberta considers them.
The irony of Delacourt’s piece is that she thinks her writing was conciliatory. She felt she was being open to granting concessions to that distant colony of upstarts in the West without realizing her attitude only illustrates the profound disconnect Laurentian Canada has with the West.
What Delacourt considers concessions are provincial rights. And if the federation wasn’t broken, provinces wouldn’t have to fight or negotiate with Ottawa for them.
Cory Morgan
Cory Morgan is an Alberta-based columnist, political commentator, and longtime advocate for Western Canadian independence. He is the author of the recently updated book The Sovereigntist’s Handbook, a grassroots guide for independence supporters and political activists.
http://sovereigntistshandbook.com/
