Northern Territories

In 1988, each of the territories was governed by a legislative assembly that operates on a similar basis to the provincial legislatures. There was a Cabinet system and the Commissioner of each territory, notwithstanding the sweeping powers conferred on him by federal legislation, in practice functions in a manner analagous to that of a supercharged provincial Lieutenant Governor. The legislative and executive jurisdiction of the territorial governments is much less than that of a province and the powers are in any event not “entrenched”. In other words, the powers of the territorial governments can be modified or taken away at any time by an ordinary statute of the Parliament of Canada.

The Legislatures and Governments of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon are not glorified municipal institutions. They legislate in respect of taxation, in respect of the administration of justice, in respect of municipal institutions, in respect of corporations, businesses, trades, industries. These legislatures exercise their authorities over a large area.

Provinces

When Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces in 1905, their natural resources were not transferred to them but remained with the. federal government. This was unlike the legal position in the older provinces. This “qualification” on their provincehood remained until the Natural Resource Transfer Agreements were embodied in the Constitution Act, 1930.

Indeed the history of Canada shows a patchwork of different arrangements in the creation of new provinces. Section 146 of the Constitution Act, 1867 contemplated the admission of the rest of British North America. In the case of British Columbia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, it was provided that each could be admitted by Imperial Order in Council at the request of the legislature of the particular colony. In the case of the territories of Rupert’s Land and the North Western Territory, it was provided that the request would have to be made by the Parliament of Canada. In none of these cases did existing provinces participate in making the decision.

In 1870, the procedure established by section 146 was employed to admit the huge territories of Rupert’s Land and the North Western Territory to Canada. In the same year, immediately following the admission of the territories, the federal Parliament, by ordinary statute, created the province of Manitoba out of part of Rupert’s Land. At that time, the population of Manitoba was 25,228. The Constitution Act, 1871 conferred on the federal Parliament the power to create provinces out of federal territories and gave the federal Parliament full legislative authority over all federal territories.

After the passage of the Manitoba Act in 1870, what was left of Rupert’s Land and the North­Western Territory was renamed the Northwest Territories and, in 1898, in response to the population increase caused by the gold rush, the Yukon Territory was carved out of the Northwest Territories and formed into a separate territory. In 1905, the provinces of Alberta with a population of 73,022 and Saskatchewan with a population of 91,279 were created out of the Northwest Territories and their government was provided for by federal statute. The Yukon and Northwest Territories now have a combined population of about 80,000.

In 1949, Newfoundland entered Confederation at the request of the Parliament of Canada. It is suggested that the then Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Louis St. Laurent, deliberately refrained from consulting the provinces because he feared Quebec might use the opportunity to seek the annexation of Labrador.