Both provinces now united by common goal of aggressively seizing as much power from Ottawa as possible
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Premiers claiming powers they don't have is the quintessential feature of Canadian federalism
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University of Calgary law professor Martin Olszynski said Smith is "wildly incorrect" about the Constitution, the Charter and the division of powers between them
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On Tuesday, Smith released an overview of the proposed act, which she says would be used to defend the province from “Ottawa’s continuous economic and constitutional attacks.”
(Then there’s the Notwithstanding Clause, the section of the Constitution that allows provincial governments to ignore the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.)
According to the overview, the act would affirm the authority of the legislature to refuse provincial enforcement of specific federal laws or policies “that violate the jurisdictional rights of Alberta” under the Constitution of Canada or Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The act’s objective is not to separate from Canada but to assert Alberta’s constitutional rights “to the furthest extent possible by effectively governing itself as a nation within a nation.”
This sounds vaguely familiar….
During an unrelated press conference Tuesday, Premier Jason Kenney commented on the sovereignty act as first proposed by
Free Alberta Strategy, saying it is “catastrophically stupid” and would lead to Alberta becoming a “banana republic.”
Kenney, who recently returned from a trip to South Korea to promote investment in Alberta, said such legislation would be “kryptonite” for investors. He would vote against the bill if it comes forward in the legislature.
Kenney got a landslide of Albertans to vote for changes to federal equalization last fall, only to see the rest of Canada shrug off the vote and forget about it essentially the next day.
Smith’s Sovereignty Act will be much harder to ignore. It represents concrete actions, a swift cowboy boot to the shins of Justin Trudeau’s grandest ambitions.
For example, she reduced the wordy debate around the constitutionality of her proposed Sovereignty Act to one simple notion, that Alberta isn’t asking for anything special, just what Quebec is already getting.
“What is the Sovereignty Act?” she said at last week’s debate. “It just says that we want to be treated just like Quebec.”
The Alberta Sovereignty Act was modelled to mimic Quebec’s unique level of control over its own affairs, something that Smith said specifically in an
August National Post op-ed. “It would essentially give Alberta the same power within confederation that Quebec has,” she wrote.
For Smith – and the United Conservative Party faction who voted for her – it’s this view of nationalism that has proved most attractive.
“Quebec has asserted it is a nation within a nation … Under my leadership, Alberta will too,” Smith wrote in August.
It is not surprising, then, that other provinces are looking for ways to assert themselves.
As for the federal government, it routinely invades provincial jurisdiction, mostly on health care, but the list keeps growing to now include daycare and dental care. These intrusions are smoothed over with cash transfers, but they are no less an affront to federalism for that.
When it comes to regulating industry, particularly the oil and gas industry, the Justin Trudeau Liberals are constantly changing the rules, and hinting at more regulation to come. This is not a concern only because the provinces have jurisdiction over resources, but also because it politicizes the rules.
