It was in my fourth year of university when I realized I was majoring in the wrong subject. As dry as it sounds, Political Science 100 was enlightening.
The class’s fundamentals guide me to this day... Okay, maybe not every day, but it has helped me understand why Alberta hates Ottawa (usually) and why Quebec wants to be left alone. It helped me realize that our Constitution is not so clear cut. Provincial and federal responsibilities overlap in strange and confusing ways.
Hence, the Supreme Court’s ruling on the federal government’s new environmental impact legislation remains a mystery to most of us. What we do know is that environmental protection is under the jurisdiction of both Canada and the provinces, leaving grey areas subject to interpretation.
Another grey area is healthcare. Even though this significant government expense falls under provincial jurisdiction, the federal government holds influence. With cold, hard cash, the federal government tries to maintain a consistently funded healthcare system across the country.
Ottawa often uses money to influence provincial policy. One area where it is interestingly absent is education. Despite this, public K-12 education runs nearly as seamlessly as healthcare, with similar curricular requirements across the provinces.
Advanced education is another provincial domain where universities have tended to operate at similar levels across the country – even maintaining similar tuition rates. Until last week, that is, when Quebec announced tuition rates for Canadians outside of Quebec would nearly double. In an effort to save its French universities, Quebec may cannibalize its most successful schools like McGill.
Then there’s equalization.... Most people don’t know much about it. The old joke is that only three people understand the formula and two of them have since passed. Equalization is a means to redistribute the country’s wealth, where provinces like Quebec receive up to $14 billion a year for essentially having a weaker economy, and Manitoba gets over $3 billion because hydropower is not included in the formula (again, few know why). Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia get nothing, and resent the rest of Canada because of it.
As always, there are cracks in the federal experiment that both narrow and widen over time. Some provinces think they should run things on their own. Quebec has been afforded the most autonomy with fewest strings attached to federal funding. Together with hefty equalization payments, some would suggest this is the price we pay to keep Quebec in Canada.
Recently, Alberta has followed Quebec’s lead with plans to run their own pension plan. The Alberta government claims they’re putting more into the Canada Pension Plan than they are taking out. With a younger, wealthier population than the rest of Canada, that could very well be. I would argue it’s all part of the give and take of being in Canada, and until Alberta has a PST of its own, it has more to give!
Our nation's governing is full of give and take. Some provinces like Alberta grow resentful over time from continuous “giving.” Quebec and the Maritimes, on the other hand, don’t want to be made to feel like they’re receiving handouts.
As worrisome as these issues are, they are relatively small cracks in our federation. Compared to the very real threat of Quebec separating from Canada in the 1990s, this is peanuts.
Western alienation has also diminished in the last couple decades (and will further diminish should Trudeau lose the next election). Despite central Canada’s historic control over the country’s politics, Western provinces have begun to show greater political and economic influence.
Remember, as my university professor taught, the provinces still hold the cards when it comes to government’s two biggest sectors, healthcare and education.
How and when they play their cards is all part of Canada’s complicated constitution game.
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