What if….CBI was a Province?

by Jim Morrow

That Cape Breton Island is a province unto itself is a proposition that has been around longer than the province to which it is presently a part. There are those who are very seriously, looking at re-achieving the Island’s province-hood which they maintain was taken away and never rightfully returned.

Mark MacNeil Chairman, CBI Province-hood Campaign, can provide chapter and verse on how the Island lost its legally granted autonomy dating back to 1713 and the Treaty of Utrecht.

The legal and constitutional issues of that argument could fill volumes. As an exercise, however hypothetical it may or may not be, to wrap one’s mind around the idea of Cape Breton Island being an entity with full provincial powers is intriguing.

The idea of province-hood raises any number of questions on governance. In this regard the question, “as a province do you see the Island being governed as other provinces?” was posed to Mr. MacNeil.

His reply was, “Essentially the legislative model we would follow would be similar to other provinces with some adaptations to suit the representative needs of our island. For instance, we are looking closely at the PEI legislature which has 27 riding’s in a province with a population comparable to our own and expect we would organize a Cape Breton Island Assembly with 25 to 29 riding’s. However, we would vary the PEI model a little as we are looking at the possibility of guaranteeing representation in our Assembly for our Mi’kmaq communities e.g. native communities of Membertou, Wagmatcook, Whycogomagh, Chapel Island & Eskasoni may be combined as one common electoral district, which with a population of 5000 people would represent one seat in the new legislature.

It should be noted that the average population per riding is expected to be approximately 5000 to 6000 people. At this point we will look to existing municipal council riding’s and NS provincial boundaries on our island to craft a distribution of seats across the island on an equitable and representative basis. “Other novel features of the prospective CBI Assembly is that we expect that in addition to a majority vote being required to pass legislation we may also require the vote to provide a majority from within the seated Assembly representation of the islands participant municipalities to support legislation prior to final passing i.e. for instance as well as passing a majority of votes in the Assembly, representatives from within the vote would also have to comprise at least 3 of 5 of Victoria, Richmond, Inverness, CBRM & Port Hawkesbury supporting the legislation . The purpose of this requirement would be to ensure that CBRM which has a population of 105,000 of 145,000 on our island, would not unduly dominate decision making on the island, with a view that legislation to be passed should reflect the best interests of the entire island as a priority.

“Another feature which is being considered is a model of governance which would see the provincial ministries decentralized with parity to each of the four counties on CBI. For instance if their were 12 or 16 ministries then each county would be ensured to host 3 or 4 ministry administrations. Because of the decentralized model we envision the choice of a capital location becomes less significant as essentially the capital would host primarily only the House of Assembly, executive support and ministerial satellite sub-offices.

“We have also looked at the notion of using a non-partisan system (i.e. a non-political party structure), but at this stage all constitutional features are open for discussion and we plan on hosting a Constitutional Convention in the Fall of 2007 to establish the guidelines for the voluntary shadow government which we intend to elect in the Fall of 2008 as a citizens assembly to follow NS and Canadian policy effects on CBI and Atlantic Canada on an interim basis until province hood is achieved. We envision four year fixed terms and hope that province hood will be achieved prior to 2020 - the 200 year anniversary of the illegal annexation of CBI by NS.”

For more info readers can contact Mr. McNeil:
RR4 Mabou
NS B0E 1X0

or visit www.provinceofcapebreton.org

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality rehearsed its litany of grievances this week before a Senate committee that found the case interesting if not persuasive. Mayor John Morgan, chief administrative officer Jerry Ryan and economic development manager John Whalley appeared before the national finance committee which is studying so-called vertical fiscal balance among orders of government in Canada.

Morgan and Whalley did all the talking, outlining the case that CBRM’s comparatively high taxes and low service expenditures are the result of the provincial government’s failure to follow through on the constitutional intent behind the federal equalization program. It is “provincial government policy that causes our residents to have dramatically lower service levels while at the same time higher tax rates within the municipal jurisdiction,” Morgan told the senators.

He argued that the principle of equalization as stated in Section 36 of the Constitution obliges both the federal government and a recipient province to track where the money goes so as to ensure that it is being used to reduce disparities. “What is happening in Nova Scotia is the funding is overwhelmingly being forwarded not to the poorest areas of the province but to the wealthiest,” Morgan contended.

It fell to Sen. Lowell Murray, the New Waterford native who retained his Progressive Conservative label after the merger that created the federal Conservative Party, to explain that persuading Ottawa to engage in such monitoring within a province is a political non-starter. “Once the cheque is sent to the provincial capital,” he said, “the federal government does not look behind it. I do not think you would ever find any federal government that would take such a look.”

Murray, the committee member who showed the most interest in the presentation, was more intrigued by arguments that the federal government is neglecting in its constitutional obligation directly by failing to focus its own economic development efforts in the areas most in need of them. He was especially taken with CBRM’s comparisons between itself (pop. 102,000) and Prince Edward Island (pop. 135,000). Total federal development spending in P.E.I. through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency in the last fiscal year was $42 million, versus $19 million in CBRM (including Enterprise Cape Breton Corp.), Whalley said.

Murray noted that the CBRM-P.E.I. argument could not be properly analyzed at one brief sitting of the committee.

Murray, along with Manitoba Tory Senator Terry Stratton, mused about whether some deficiency within the region itself — some lack of private sector initiative, perhaps — could be part of CBRM’s problem. Morgan and Whalley would have none of it. “This is not about individual effort,” said Whalley. “This is about a system of policies and structures that has tilted the whole field.”

Nothing was resolved, of course, but it was a real discussion, free of hysteria and partisan bickering — the sort of discussion of the CBRM complaint that we almost never hear. It’s a pity it had to happen in such an obscure forum so far away. We’ll leave to the bean-counting councillors and letter-writers to tell us now whether the trip was worth it.