Document Information
Date: 1899-04-20
By: North-West Territories (Legislative Assembly), The Regina Leader
Citation: North-West Territories, Legislative Assembly,The Regina Leader (27 April 1899), 4th Legi, 1st Sess, 20 April 1899
Other formats: TBA
THE PUBLIC LANDS WILL BE CLAIMED!
Territorial Treasurer Ross Announces the Government’s Proposition Relating to Provincial Establishment.
RIGHT TO OWNERSHIP OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
An amount on Account of Lands Alienated Will be Asked to be Made our Capital Account in the Scheme of Confederation, and the Remaining Public Lands to be Demanded for the Territories—The Manitoba Basis, Urged by Calgary Boomsters, Would Leave Us in a State of Perpetual Provincial Poverty—The Budget Debate in the Assembly—Consecutive Report of Last Week’s Proceedings in the House.
….
THE ESTIMATES.
The Estimates for the year 1899 total $413,625.73, divided under the following heads:
| Civil Government | $43,826 77 |
| Legislation | 30,125 00 |
| Administration of Justice | 9,950 00 |
| Public Works | 136,000 00 |
| Education | 158,000 00 |
| Agriculture and Statistics | 16,650 00 |
| Hospitals, Charities and Public Health | 8,750 00 |
| Miscellaneous | 10,323 76 |
Public Works.—The amount of Public Works is made up as follows:— Caretakers, messengers and stable supplies, $1,255; maintenance of legislative buildings and grounds, $2,445; maintenance and rent of Normal school buildings, $980; inspection of public works, $3,500; aid to local improvement districts, $14,000; inspection of coal mines, steam boilers and public wells, $4,000; expropriation of lands for roads, reservoirs, etc., painting bridges, advertising for tenders, lithographing maps etc., $3,250; repairs to public works, $5,000; culverts, $1,000; bridges $24,070; surveys (roads, etc.,) $5,000; tools and implements, $2,000; dams, $5,000; well boring $18,000; fireguards, $2,500; Edmonton-Peace River- Nelson River road and trail, $10,000; clearing, grading and improving main roads and approaches to bridges, $30,000. Total $136,000.
Education.—The Education Vote includes $140,000 for grants to schools; $400,grants to high schools; $3,600, Normal school and institutes; $9,500, inspectors’ salaries and expenses; $1,500, examinations; and $2,500, education of deaf mutes.
Agriculture.—To agricultural societies, $4,000; stock importation, $1,500; experimental work, $1,500; destruction of wolves, $1,500; destruction of noxious weeds, $4,000; collection and distribution of agricultural and vital statistics, $1,800; brand book, $1,200; encouragement of institute work by agricultural societies, $1,000.
THE BUDGET
The budget was brought down in the Legislature on Tuesday of this week. In a later issue there will be published in THE LEADER, as in former years, a fairly full report of the Budget Debate in the Assembly. This week we can give only a cursory glance at the speech of the Territorial Treasurer.
Mr. ROSS in making his first budget statement spoke nearly two and a half hours. In the latter part of the speech, after he had finished the dry details of the estimates and when dealing with the question of the future of these Territories, Mr. Ross spoke with a fluency and eloquence which he had never before exhibited on the floor of the House. His announcement of the view of the Government on the question of the proper method of approaching the problem confronting the country—the problem of provincial establishment— was highly important and notable.
The hon. the Treasurer gave a hurried review of the financial history of the Assembly and its forerunner, the old North-West Council. The first financial statement presented in the Territories was made in 1878, showing a revenue of $526 and no expenditure. The next year, 1879, revenue had fallen off to $25 and expenditure risen to $237,37. In 1879 the first federal grant was drawn and in that year the revenue from all sources was $20,000. In 1886-87—last year of the Council—the total appropriations were $85,578; 1888 (first year of Legislature)—$105,000. The following is a summary of Dominion grants in various years since 1891; 1891-92—$195,700; ’93-’94—$199,200; ’94-’95—$225,000; ’95-’96—$267,000 (including $25,000 for relief); ’96-’97—$242,879; ’97-’98—$282,879. In these latter years local revenues ranged from $20000 in 1892 to $30,000 in 1897, and for the present year are estimated at $49,000. The estimated revenue for the present year includes: Balance from last year, $71,745; Dominion grant for Peace River road, $10,000, federal grant $282,979; local revenues $49,406. The Government hopes that the federal grant may be increased but cannot anticipate the Dominion supply bill for the year. The sum asked from Ottawa is $535,000. Mr. Ross went into a very full explanation of the Estimates, the main items of which appear above. One pleasing statement made was that the C.P.R. Co. has agreed to give free transportation to Territorial public works officers, which wil enable the public works vote to go much farther than it otherwise would. The item of $10,000 for Peace River road is an amount paid by order in council from the Dominion Government, the sum being entrusted by the Dominion Public Works Department to the Territorial department for expenditure on the road. While electoral boundary lines are not regarded in apportionment of moneys now, yet the great natural divisions are kept in view. On public works there were expended last year in Northern Alberta $36,000, Southern Alberta $49,000, Western Assiniboia, $39,000; Eastern Assiniboia, $51,000; Saskatchewan, $38,000. After explaining the estimates, Mr. Ross dealt with the position of the Territories financially, and made a statement of what the Government believed should be presented in the way of a constitutional proposition. There could be no question, he said, but that the federal grant of $282,979 was totally inadequate. The Government had this year asked $535,000, the amount deem ed necessary for the ordinary services dealt with by the Assembly. When considering any proposition for provincial establishment it has to be remembered that those services did not embrace all the services which as a province we should be obliged to bear. In addition to the grant to the Assembly Parliament votes for Lieut.-Governor’s office $5,880; incidental justice $2,000; land titles offices $15,000; insane patients, $50,000; schools in unorganised territory, $2,000—these items made up the vote for North-West Government. Besides there were voted items of $40,000 for administration of justice; $2,500 for sheriffs; $15,000 for jails; $7,000 for agricultural societies; $5,000 direct vote besides other assistance to creameries. Then there would be at least a proportion of the immigration expenditure; the expenditure on court houses has always been borne by the Dominion; there would be some expenditure for law and order. While no one could contend that the Mounted Police vote was a provincial expenditure, yet as a province we would have to bear expenditure for law and order as do the provinces. The computation showed that to-day Parliament was voting about $550,000 for provincial services in the Territories—a sum far short of the requirements, as instead of the item of $282,979 granted to the Assembly he had shown that there was need for, and the Government had asked for, $535,000; which meant that local services in the Territories to-day demanded an annual expenditure of $800,000. This being the case it was well to look and see where we would land if the course was followed which some were advocating. Manitoba’s subsidy was made up as follows: Per capita grant of 80 cents a head; $50,000 for government; 100,000 in lieu of lands; and interest on capital account computed at $32 per head of population. On such a basis the Territories would receive say: $120,000 per capita grant; $50,000 for government; then on capital account for argument’s sake place the principal at $3,250,000 (although he might say that we were already charged with $3,000,000 on this account) which would give $162,500; we have about four and a half times Manitoba’s area of land, and should therefore receive say $400,000 on that account. This made a total of $732,500,—and remember this would be a fixed amount, incapable of enlargement. Already the Assembly was asking $535,000, and Parliament was appropriating over $200,000 a year for local services besides. In view of these figures was there any man willing to believe that an arrangement on Manitoba’ basis would be a good bargain for the Territories to make? That bargain once made, and the country would be in the position that no increase could be got in the way of subsidy except on the 80 cents per capita provision up to a certain limit. Would anyone say that such a bargain would satisfy the needs of the Territories, even if the amounts he had named could be got, and it was more than likely that there would be difficulty in obtaining so much as he had computed on that basis. The bargain would be just about sufficient for present needs; but in five years, with any influx of population, we would be in a position that we might very well turn to a method that the House had heard something of, namely, commence borrowing. The Government believed that it was not needed to make that kind of a bargain; they believed the Territories should demand the accounting by the Dominion of the whole land area excepting those portions homesteaded. They believed that we were entitled to possession of all the public lands, and more than that, they believed that an accounting should be made for the lands which had been given away or alienated,—given for railways some of which were not built in the Territories. Those lands alienated had been given by Dominion vote for Domini on purposes. Land was practically the only revenue producing asset which a province could have—an asset which grew in value with the growth of population, —the only asset capable of maintaining an equilibrium between revenue and expenditure. Mr. Ross made a computation of the lands. There was altogether 300,000 square miles; 190,000,000 acres. One-half this area the even-numbered sections-were set apart for homesteading; calculating pre-emptions, one-quarter of the one half, gave 120,000,000 acres. Then 35,000,000 acres had been given away as subsidies to railways. It was fair to argue that those 35,000,000 acres had been used in lieu of Dominion cash. In Canada about $200,000,000 has been spent in subsidies to railways, and these land subsidies should be considered in the same light as cash subsidies—federal payments for federal purposes, and when local resources are used for federal purposes the province or the territory whose resources are thus taken should be given credit. This principle was accepted in British Columbia. The Dominion required land in that province for railway purposes,—and had to buy it. The Dominion took a 29-mile strip of rocks in British Columbia, the price being a capitalisation yielding $100,000 a year, which is the amount paid on account of the land yearly by Parliament to British Columbia. So if $35,000,000 acres of our lands have been taken for railway purposes, the price should be capitalised for our benefit. One dollar an acre would be a low rate for these lands, and it would be fair to ask that interest be paid by Parliament to the Territories on a capital account of $35,000,000 on account of lands so alienated. That would give a revenue of $1,000,000 a year. (Cheers.)Then there was the 35,000,000 acres not alienated, and which should be handed to the Territories. Set apart 35,000,000 acres of that which probably the federal government could properly claim represented the cost of having surveyed and administered the lands, and there was left 50,000,000 acres to be taken by the Territories as a revenue producing asset, a tangible capital account, which would grow in value with every cent’s expenditure, which would be made more valuable by every dollar’s expenditure on schools, on road improvements, on any and every provincial object. As population increased that asset would increase in value, because the law of supply and demand governed the price of land as everything else. So as our needs grew, our revenue would also grow. This was the class of proposition that this Government proposed to the people of the Territories. (Cheers.) When they asked for provincial establishment they would certainly ask for the power to borrow; they would want every power possessed by any province, but he trusted that the day would be far distant when this country would need to resort to the use of the power to borrow. The resources of the country were such that there should be no need to borrow at least during the time of the members of that House. The above was the proposition which the Government would ask the people to consider. The House had no mandate to make a bargain, but the time had come for a change, and it was the duty of public men to seek to educate the people and to interest the people in the subject. Every man in the House and country should stand shoulder to shoulder on the principle, the justice of the Territorial claim. The lines between Grit and Tory should be obliterated for the time being until the Dominion be brought to admit the principle that those lands were ours. It was the duty of our representatives in Parliament to act in concert on this question, which was the most momentous that could engage their attention during this term.
At the evening session Dr. Brett, leader of the Opposition, made a two hours’ speech. His criticism of the Estimates was mild. He had no objection to urge against any of the items, but urged that some of the public works sums, to be voted in bulk, should have been itemised, as has been one here in former years and is done in all other legislatures. He contended that the House might reasonably expect that by this time the Agriculture Department would have something to show for its expense, but he failed to discover anything done. He held that the Government should do something to encourage immigration, whereas they appeared to be anxious to discourage immigration in alleged proof of which assertion he read the letter from Mr. Ross to the Regina Board of Trade respecting application for a well auger, appearing in THE LEADER last week. The Government’s proposition respecting the provincial question-the demand for the lands— Dr. Brett declared the wildest freak of imagination ever heard placed by a responsible minister of the crown before a responsible assembly, and he believed the proposition was made simply to enable the Government to dilly-dally and do nothing and thus hold the support of those averse to establishment, while at the same time appealing by teat alluring but ethereal project to those sections of country which demand advancement.
Mr. Brown followed Dr. Brett in a fluent and telling speech, pointing out the weakness of Dr. Brett’s position and urging that if the Government’s proposition in regard to public lands was just, the public men of the Territories would be recreant to their trust did they fail to make every endeavor to establish the claim.
After Mr. Meyers had spoken briefly, commending on the whole the Government’s policy, there was a long pause. Ultimately,
Mr. Ross arose and said if no other member wished to speak he would close the debate.
Mr. Patrick then took the floor. On the establishment question Dr. Patrick held that two future provinces should be now mapped out, their bounds determined, and for the time being their legislation and government be carried on by one legislature and government; —in effect, a legislative union such as prevailed in Upper and Lower Canada from 1841 to 1867. These future provinces might remain for some time as a territory and still obtain and exercise the powers of borrowing—in fact all provincial powers, except that their legislation would be subject as now to the Governor General in Council.
After another long pause, the motion that the House resolve into Committee of Supply was put and carried.
The failure of Mr. Bennett to join in the debate was a cause of general surprise, and the conviction prevails that the Government’s proposition took the wind so completely out of Mr. Bennett’s sails that he recognized himself as being hopelessly at sea.