Interview with Brian Lee Crowley Part II

I remain confident Labrador needs to assert itself once again like it did in the early nineteen seventies and good information from credible people will help facilitate healthy governance discussions. This week I share the rest of my interview with Brian Lee Crowley. Crowley is the founding President of AIMS, Atlantic Canada's public policy think tank. He has headed the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council (APEC), taught politics, economics and philosophy at half a dozen Canadian Post Secondary Institutions and been constitutional advisor to the governments of Nova Scotia and Manitoba.

He has been a Salvatori Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, a diplomat for the EEC Commission, an aid administrator for the UN in Africa, an advisor to the Quebec government on parliamentary and electoral reform and a Parliamentary Intern at the House of Commons in Ottawa.

He is a media commentator, a former member of the Editoral Board at The Globe and Mail and his articles appear in national, regional and local newspapers. He holds degrees from McGill and the London School of Economics. He is a member of numerous international boards and societies. He is an author of many books and other publications including two projects on the Canadian health-care system.

In Labrador there are three Aboriginal claims but all of different ancestries. If the three of those groups where in agreement, do you think they would have enough influence to form a new territory in Labrador?

“I have no idea if they have an interest. The obstacles are significant. Certainly the major thing aboriginal groups are seeking is self government, and it is entirely possible that they might see territorial status for all of Labrador as possibly offering a vehicle for a more comprehensive kind of self-government. Nunavut was in part carved out of the NWT so that there would be a government at the federal/provincial/territorial negotiating table that would have an aboriginal majority and Ottawa saw that as being positive. Aboriginal people in Labrador might well conclude that interests would be better represented in such an arrangement.” Logistically what hurdles would have to be overcome as it relates to the Canadian constitution? Can they be overcome?

“I stand to be corrected but in order to change the current boundaries would require a constitutional amendment and, at a minimum, the agreement of the provincial government.

There are two possibilities under the constitution and it would require some study to know which was the relevant one. Section 43A of the Constitution Act of 1982 states “An amendment to the Constitution of Canada in relation to any provision that applies to one or more, but not all, provinces, including (a) any alteration to boundaries between provinces, and (b) any amendment to any provision that relates to the use of the English or the French language within a province, may be made by proclamation issued by the Governor General under the Great Seal of Canada only where so authorized by resolutions of the Senate and House of Commons and of the legislative assembly of each province to which the amendment applies.”

“If granting Labrador territorial status did not fall under this amending rule, then it would likely fall under the general amendment formula with agreement from at least seven provinces with fifty percent of Canada’s population. Section 38 actually reads (1) An amendment to the Constitution of Canada may be made by proclamation issued by the Governor General under the Great Seal of Canada where so authorized by (a) resolutions of the Senate and House of Commons; and (b) resolutions of the legislative assemblies of at least two-thirds of the provinces that have, in the aggregate, according to the then latest general census, at least fifty per cent of the population of all the provinces.”

“The first option would be the preferred one for Labradorians because many provinces may fear opening up a can of worms with regard to distinct areas within their own provinces that would like more autonomy or greater power.”

Currently Labrador leads the province with its self-sufficiency ratio. There is a known inventory of iron ore, nickel, hydro-electricity, uranium, natural gas, aboriginal government infrastructure, a fishery, growing tourism and military infrastructure. Do you think this combination with an obviously low tax base would provide for a vibrant economy of less than 30,000?

“That is an empirical question. I am not in a position to speculate. It needs to be studied completely. I wouldn’t be surprised if it could but it is a matter of facts. A report on this specifically should be commissioned probably before an Estates General in Labrador so everyone had that information.”

So this concludes my interview with Brian Lee Crowley. Brian makes a final point about a commissioned report. I will follow up that point with an article of its own. Such a report would be particularly useful for all of our inputs into public policy and there is a Nunavut example of one such report. Other points about the constitution and the concept of an aboriginal majority government should generate some healthy discussions in Labrador. Labrador governance is a legitimate topic and I trust you will feel comfortable raising the subject on the entire gamete from the Premiers offices, to the department of Labrador Affairs, to municipalities, to aboriginal self government to Labrador self government.