Saskatchewan Act - Creation

Creation

From 1870 to 1905, the region which is now Saskatchewan was part of the North-West Territories, established by the Parliament of Canada. As the population of the North-West Territories increased, its government evolved from an appointed lieutenant governor in 1876, to responsible government in 1897, to near full provincial powers, with the exception of direct taxation by 1901. However, with the federal government failing to cover the full expenses of the Territories, Premier Frederick Haultain requested provincial status for a large swathe of the Territories.

The initial proposal by the Conservative Haultain to Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier in 1900 was seconded by Liberal James Ross, and was taken under consideration by Clifford Sifton, Minister of the Interior. Haultain desired that the entire area between Manitoba and British Columbia be incorporated as a single province, due to the region's shared history and economy. Others supported splitting the area into two or more separate provinces based on the existing provisional districts, for fear a single province would be unwieldy, and that it might come to dominate federal politics. The Laurier government postponed any decision until after the 1904 election, during which Haultain actively campaigned for the Conservatives. The Conservatives lost to Laurier's Liberals, and following the election the Liberals decided to create two provinces, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Two sections in the Acts as they were passed caused significant controversy: section 17, which constitutionally entrenched the existing rights of the religious minority in each school district, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, to establish publicly funded separate schools, with no discrimination in public funding against the separate schools, and section 21, which reserved management of Crown lands and natural resources to the Federal Government.

Section 17 was controversial because the issue of religious instruction also paralleled language issues, as Protestants were mainly anglophones, and most francophones were Roman Catholic. English Canadians felt that immigrants should be assimilated to the British culture and language, while French Canadians saw any removal of existing protections as an attack on the French culture. Clifford Sifton resigned rather than support the initial draft of this provision, which he considered to be expanding the rights then in force under territorial law. A modified version of section 17 was included in the Act despite the protests and Sifton's resignation.

Section 21 allowed the Federal government to retain control over the Crown land and natural resources in the new Province, unlike the situation in the older provinces, which had control over their Crown lands and natural resources. While the Act provided for monetary transfers to compensate for the lack of resource revenue, this policy hindered the economic growth of the new Province and became one of the original sources of western alienation. Haultain formed a protest party, the Provincial Rights Party, based around this issue. The Province finally obtained control over natural resources in 1930, with the passage of the Natural Resources Acts and the Constitution Act, 1930. This issue was again clarified in the Constitution Act, 1982.

The Alberta Act was passed at the same time as the Saskatchewan Act, creating the new province of Alberta. At the time, the two Acts were often referred to as the Autonomy Acts. The provisions of the two Acts are very similar.