It’s among the imponderables what credible people outside of Labrador and across Canada’s north think of the current Labrador governance structure. Back in late July and early August I touched on this subject and pondered why people were in fear of discussions on the subject. Most people will only whisper the thoughts in private conversations. There is a clear lack of information on the subject so I thought I would spark some debate by interviewing a series of credible people with nothing to fear. I hope you enjoy their perspectives in the weeks and months to come.
Brian Lee Crowley is the founding President of AIMS, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, Atlantic Canada's public policy think tank. In its ten years of existence, AIMS has brought a distinctive and influential Eastern Canadian voice to regional and national debates over public policy in areas such as transfer payments, social policy, fiscal and tax policy, health care, education performance and accountability, equalization, regulatory burden, Canada-US relations and much more. AIMS is one of the world's most honoured think tanks. It is a four time winner of the prestigious Sir Antony Fisher Award, which recognizes excellence in public policy think tank publications and projects. No think tank in the world has won this honour more times than AIMS. In its tenth anniversary year (2004-05), AIMS also won the Templeton Freedom Prize for Institute Excellence. More than 200 think tanks world wide are eligible for the Fisher and Templeton prizes.
Among his many books and other publications, Crowley co-authored two projects on the Canadian health-care system both of which won the Sir Antony Fisher Award. In recognition of his health-care work, he was named to the most influential recent provincial health-care inquiry in Canada, the Alberta Premier’s Advisory Council on Health (the Mazankowski Committee). The Council’s Chairman, former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Don Mazankowski, called Crowley the "intellectual architect" of the committee’s report. Crowley is a much sought-after media commentator on health-care policy and has spoken to scores of national and international conferences in recent years on health-care reform in Canada.
Crowley has headed the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council (APEC), taught politics, economics and philosophy at Dalhousie University, University of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg, le Collège Universitaire de Saint-Boniface, the City of London Polytechnic and the Université d'été at Aix-en-Provence and been constitutional advisor to the governments of Nova Scotia (Charlottetown negotiations) and Manitoba (Meech Lake negotiations). 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.
Crowley is a frequent commentator on political and economic issues for the CBC, Radio-Canada and many other media, and is a former member of the Editorial Board of The Globe and Mail (one of Canada's two national newspapers) and of the National Political Panel on Morningside with the late Peter Gzowski on CBC Radio. His articles appear in both national newspapers and numerous regional and local newspapers, including regular columns in the largest circulation newspapers in Nova Scotia (the Chronicle-Herald), New Brunswick (the Times & Transcript) and Québec (La Presse, the largest circulation French language daily in North America). He has had his own weekly current events talk show on the Eastlink cable network, reaching 250,000 households in Nova Scotia, PEI and southern New Brunswick. He holds degrees from McGill and the London School of Economics, including a doctorate in political economy from the latter.
He is a director of three organisations: the Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education; Civitas, which promotes an understanding of the principles of a free and ordered society; and the Maine Public Policy Institute. In addition, he is a member of the Research Advisory Board of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy (Winnipeg), and the Nigerian Institute for Public Policy, Lagos, Nigeria, an Adjunct Faculty Member at the Center for Media and Public Policy, The Heritage Foundation, and a member of the Leadership Council on Energy Restructuring, both in Washington, DC.
So Brian you are a busy man and AIMS is without a doubt an important public policy think tank in Atlantic Canada. We want to ask you lots of questions about governance in this country. There is a theory that if Labrador and Newfoundland were governed separately they would be more focused and achieve better economic results as opposed to holding out for the promise of mega-developments. What do you think?
“Let me just say the ideal government is self government, each person deciding things for themselves. Every other form of government is a compromise. The further away you get from this ideal the more dissatisfied people will be. Very large countries with large populations tend to be very distant and autocratic from their populations. There are trade offs. In Newfoundland and Labrador there are well-defined differences between the two parts. One example would be the very different ways they are connected to markets in North America. The question becomes can you have a single government that can reconcile these diverse interests or are they simply too diverse. It would be expensive to have a separate government but on the other hand you would get a government more in tune with Labrador’s needs. You don’t want to be saddled with a government where the costs outweigh the benefits and you don’t want a government that only looks out for others’ interests either.”
The Atlantic Institute for Market Studies does a lot of research on equalization reform. How would Labrador fare as a territory in Canada’s current equalization environment versus the one AIMS advocates?
“That is a good question. It would take some research to determine how Labrador would fare. The three other territories do quite well out of equalization, large natural resource endowments and the federal presence. The North West Territories, for example, have been enjoying an economic boom because of the diamond industry. Labrador would have many of the same strengths and advantages.
I have serious reservations about the equalization formula. It gives to the weaker regions more government than they need and in turn fosters reliance on Ottawa instead of incentives to develop their economies. We need to be self supporting and creating value. It’s not in Labrador’s interest to fall further into that system.”
“I have no reason to believe Voisey’s Bay and other operating mines are the only non-renewable natural resources that could be developed in Labrador. If you took non-renewable natural resources out of the equalization formula it would encourage further development. A government of Labrador not overly dependent on equalization would push harder for more development.”
It would appear from maps and literature that Labrador is often omitted from Atlantic Canadian initiatives. Isn’t it fair to say Labrador is more comparable to the territories in relation to ancestries, geography, populations and so on? Is there room for Labrador in Atlantica?
“My impressions are superficial. It appears to me Labrador and the Territories have obvious similarities. I suspect part of the problem is the government in St. John’s concentrates its efforts on the island where the population centers are. It’s hard to get their attention. If you can’t get their attention how are you going to get Ottawa’s? I am not being dismissive but the name change of the province was, I fear, more window dressing than substance.”
“Labrador isn’t shown on the Atlantica map because Atlantica is an economic concept, not a political one. If there were appropriate infrastructure across the Strait of Belle Isle, for example, Labrador would be part of Atlantica because it would be connected to continental markets through the territory of Atlantica. As it stands, Labrador is not part of the economic entity Atlantica attempts to describe, but we take no pleasure in that. We merely observe it as an economic fact, and a fact that has been recognised by your own political leadership, nor is Labrador the only piece of a political jurisdiction that falls outside Atlantica. Part of Quebec and New York for example are excluded. It’s all about connections and access to North American markets. Labrador would absolutely be in there if it were properly connected across the Atlantica territory.”
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.”
What advice would you give to people interested in pursuing the idea of a territory in Labrador?
“Well I would look at two experiences that are relevant. One would be in Quebec. They held an Estates General (États Généraux), a gathering together of all the communities. They pulled together the leadership to deal with the issue of Quebec’s future. Labrador could do this to discuss its place in Canada and the world. In the sixties the Quebec Estates General galvanized Quebec society to gain control of their own destiny.”
“In the West in the seventies there was the “One Big Province Movement”. The provinces in western Canada had a strategy to improve their position in Canada by combining to become a single huge province with major clout. The conference that was held to discuss that idea gave birth, for example, to the Canada West Foundation.”
“Labradorians have to get together and decide what they want. They have to decide to either fight for a territorial status or for more power within their current structure. They are legitimate topics. Territories do enjoy autonomy but they are still wards of Ottawa, a step down from provincial status. Their powers are gifts from Ottawa. You have to think would you want to be in this position vis à vis Ottawa.”
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 obvious 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 there you have it, some very good information from Brian Lee Crowley. Brian has nothing to fear and I am sure his life will go on after this article is published. What did you find most intriguing about these comments? I’ll continue to follow up with these sorts of questions and see how leaders in the Yukon, North West Territories and Nunavut feel about the subject. I promise you that their responses are interesting and hopefully with enough good information we can have sensible debates about a subject that often has a stigma attached to it.
There are several points that Brian highlights that I felt were particularly useful, especially as it relates to the concept of an Estates General. Labrador has a forum annually at the Combined Councils of Labrador and this year it is titled “One Labrador”. The majority of stakeholders, aboriginal groups and municipalities will all be in attendance.
As a follow up to government’s unwillingness to attend last year’s meeting maybe there is no better time to have a closed door and frank discussion.
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 absence from Atlantica due to the lack of transportation infrastructure, the constitution, the ideal form of government and the concept of an aboriginal or Labrador majority government spark numerous ideas. I have faith that research and information will bring clarity to many of our debates in Labrador, without it our views are polarized from years of hard knocks and ultimately none of our diverse interests will maximize their potential.
