Calgary economist urges feds to mend rift with Western Canada

Calgary economist Jack Mintz offered some medicine Monday for what he believes ails Canada when it comes to the perceived growing rift between the West and Central Canada. 

Mintz, who is the President's Fellow at the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy and spoke a few months ago about the potential for a possible "Albrexit," says the province is facing an existential threat that didn't exist 40 years ago.

In a paper released Monday, Mintz said the threat of separation in Western Canada could pose a serious risk to the federation — and he also suggested a few ways the federal government might ratchet down the tension level a notch.

"What I'm suggesting is we have to be very careful to make sure it doesn't become a bigger problem than it should be," he said.

Mintz said Alberta's financial contributions to the rest of the country — and what it gets in return — have created a rift that has the potential to become a full-blown constitutional crisis.

Incoming Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has pledged to hold a referendum on equalization, a move supported on April 11 by 57 per cent of Albertans, according to CBC's Vote Compass online survey.

• 57% of Albertans want referendum on federal equalization, Vote Compass finds

Since Kenney was elected, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is now floating the notion of that province doing the same thing.

• What a referendum on equalization could cost Sask. and why the government may pursue it

'Conflict of claim'

In his paper, Mintz characterized the dispute as a "conflict of claim," which involves a small, wealthy region sending significant amounts of money to a larger, more politically powerful, and poorer federation.

(Some examples he mentioned in his paper included Malaysia and Singapore, Biafra and Nigeria and Catalonia and Spain.

(Singapore separated from Malaysia in August 1965. Biafara and Nigeria waged a civil war between 1967 and 1970. Catalonia voted as recently as October 2017 to establish independence from Spain.)

Mintz suggests that Ottawa could dial down the conflict by taking a more cooperative approach with the provinces over carbon policy and energy regulation.

"I don't think Albertans object to the policy of having environmental and resource policies twinned together and having responsible development. That's what's happening in a lot of parts of the world right now," Mintz said.

"I think what they're feeling is that we're getting the environmental policies, but no development — and that's an existential threat to the province and that's where it can be a real serious issue which I see [developing] right now."

He said the federal government should also make confederation more attractive with measures such as reforming federal transfer payments.

"Western Canada is now a very big part of Canada. It's not like many years ago, when it was just a small part of Canada," Mintz said.

"Now, it's a very powerful economic part of Canada," he added.

"It pays a lot of the bills to the rest of Canada and so it should be a concern to the federal government," he said.

"What I'm suggesting is that we have to be very careful to make sure that it doesn't become a bigger problem than it should be."