Document Information

Date: 1977-08-18
By: Secretariat of the Conference
Citation: 18th Annual Premiers’ Conference, Natural Resource Management and Provincial Economic Development, Doc 850-8/024 (St. Andrews: 18-19 August 1977).
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Document No: 850-8/024

18TH ANNUAL PREMIERS’ CONFERENCE

The Premiers reaffirmed the primacy of provincial control over natural resources and stressed their fundamental importance to provincial economic development as a means of realizing the diverse regional, social and economic aspirations of Canadians. In this respect, the Premiers expressed frustration over certain recent federal activities that have thwarted, and thereby denied, provincial primacy over the ownership and management of natural resources. Examples of such federal moves include the non-deductability of provincial royalties for federal income tax purposes, and direct involvement by the Government of Canada in litigation at the lower court level challenging the constitutional validity of provincial resource legislation under the guise of the trade and commerce power in the Constitution.

The Premiers were of the view that provincial primacy over resource ownership and development called for a commitment by the Federal Government to harmonize its existing and future national policies in order to make them compatible with provincial natural resource development strategies.

The Premiers also considered alternative means by which this objective might be accomplished.