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Tom Monto

Alberta province-hood Liberal achievement not Conservative

..."Alberta entered Confederation in 1905."

...

"Early 20th century

The new province of Alberta had a population of 78,000 but apart from the Canadian Pacific railway it lacked infrastructure. The people were farmers and they lacked schools and medical facilities. Ottawa retained control of its natural resources until 1930, making economic development difficult and complicating federal-provincial relations. Indeed, battles over oil poisoned relations with the federal government, especially after 1970."


These two statements by a Conservative website mislead the reader.


Alberta by being in the NWT had been part of Canada, and thus part of Confederation, since 1870. It had been electing one or more representatives to the House of Commons since 1887, and had had a voice in the Senate since 1888 (Richard Hardisty, soon followed by James Lougheed, grandfather of Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed, 1971-1985).


Alberta became a province in 1905. A Liberal federal government had finally granted province-hood to the most settled southern parts of the NWT.

While Conservatives crow about lack of provincial control of natural resources from 1905 to 1929, they don't mention that while Alberta was a part of the NWT, the federal government had had full control of the region's natural resources. That is, as much as any government could have. The private owners of land and mineral rights, of mines and worksites have much control of course.


Residents of Alberta had been calling for province-hood since 1883. At a early date, the Calgary Herald (Oct. 12, 1883) called for "a convention of the people" to forcefully push the federal government to reform its policies covering the NWT, including "reform of the impractical regulations" covering the area's "vast mineral resources".


In 1885 the Manitoba and North-West Farmers Union issued a comprehensive "Statement of the claims of the Provinces of Manitoba and the NWT to the constitutional rights of a province under the BNA Act, 1867."


Did the Conservative government of John A MacDonald, prime minister 1878-1891, grant province-hood or control of natural resources to the Territories? No.


Did the Conservative governments of Abbott, Thompson Bowell and Tupper, prime ministers 1891-1896, grant province-hood or control of natural resources to the Territories? No.


Liberal PM Laurier, prime minister 1896-1911, did grant province-hood to Alberta (and Saskatchewan) in 1905.


Control of Alberta's natural resources were retained by the federal government - as much as they could be by any government - private ownership still holding much power. And only until the federal government parted with them to private buyers. The federal government had preserved "the interest of the Crown in all Crown lands, mines, minerals (precious and base) and royalties derived therefrom within the Province and the interest of the Crown in the waters and water-powers within the Province under the North-west Irrigation Act, 1898, and the Dominion Water Power Act" (Memorandum of Agreement made this fourteenth day of December, 1929 available on-line). Once they were in hands of private owners they came under provincial oversight. Once a homesteader proved up his homestead and was granted ownership, the land, a resource, came under provincial government oversight.


The federal government did retain Crown ownership of minerals and derived royalties. In lieu of that income, Alberta was paid a lump sum (of an amount per head of about $1 per person per year - this at a time when a down payment on a town lot in Edmonton cost as little as $10). (Edmonton Bulletin, Oct. 24, 1905)


And federal governments acted as many high-handed government act - it helped its friends at the expense of local citizens. Albertans wanted to keep water-power resources of the Upper Bow River in public hands, but one-time premier Sifton, when federal cabinet minister, transferred the rights to a private company, a friend of the government. (Foster, John E. Brownlee, p. 102)


After province-hood, many Albertans called for Alberta to have control of its natural resources (and to lose the lump sum payment).


Did the Conservative governments of Borden, prime minister 1911 to 1920, or Meighen, prime minister 1920-1921, grant such powers? No they did not.


It was Liberal PM Mackenzie King who under pressure from John Brownlee, UFA Alberta premier 1925-1934, finally, granted Alberta that control.


The record of Conservative governments does not actually look that good under close examination.


When private oil companies were burning off Alberta's natural gas in the Turner Valley oilfields in the early 1930s, did Conservative Prime Minister R.B. Bennett stand up and make them stop? No, in fact, laws passed to that effect by the UFA government were overturned.


But under Liberal PM Mackenzie King, when he was PM 1935-1948, laws passed to that effect by William Aberhart's Social Credit government were upheld, and finally the terrible waste and pollution subsided to a dull roar.


What are Alberta natural resources?


It is more than oil - it is its soil, forests, minerals, water, etc. If we look too much at oil, we are liable to sacrifice our other resources. A reported (June 2020) 160,000 litres of spilled oil from the TransMountain pipeline is sure to have affected these other natural resources.


It is that kind of waste, repeated across the province, or the taking of our natural resources by foreign corporations, the kind of careful conservancy that Albertans fought so hard for decades to get control of?



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