Standing up for Sask. doesn’t always mean following Alberta

Has Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe given much consideration to what happens in Regina — home of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police — if Alberta develops its own police force?

It’s one of the many, many serious questions that seem lost amid all the western autonomy chest-thumping Moe and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney seem to be sharing. But isn’t it a rather obvious one?

It’s certainly one of the things that #wexit separatists — who prefer this conversation to be about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and federal Liberal policies — don’t want to address.

Why would they, if their entire brand is based on a mythical world where Alberta and Saskatchewan have easy access to deepwater ports, do not have to deal with existing First Nations treaty land entitlement or have to propose a Criminal Code, or regulate banking, communication, railways, pipelines, customs and immigration, shipping, trade agreements, foreign affairs or national defence?

But what of our elected politicians?

What of the serious-minded provincial Prairie premiers now walking the fine line between a wink-and-nod encouragement of western separatists stoking the anti-federal Liberal government anger, while still purporting to be staunch Canadians? Shouldn’t they start answering some questions on the costs and other effects of these expressions of provincial autonomy?

Such thoughts cross one’s mind after Kenney’s speech outlining how he intends to defend Alberta that he delivered in Red Deer at the “What Next?” conference conducted by the Manning Centre for Building Democracy.

His outline for a “fair deal for Alberta” in Confederation — which involves taking provincial powers from the central government in Ottawa — has certainly been cheered by the separatist movement. And it’s largely applauded by many Albertans and others who, so far, have taken little interest in costs — financial and otherwise — to the citizenry of their province and beyond.

But what of its effects on not only Albertans but other Canadians, including those of Saskatchewan who might very well be affected by Kenney’s initiatives?

Kenney said his province will seek a five-year retroactive lifting of the cap on fiscal stabilization, which would provide Alberta with a $1.75-billion equalization rebate. He also outlined for consideration federal tax collection within Alberta rather than outsourcing Canada Revenue Agency jobs, withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan and creating a provincially run pension plan instead, and establishing a provincial police force.

All were framed in the notion that this exists in Quebec anyway. And one gets the ongoing frustration when there seems one rule in the federation for one particular province and not the others.

In that vein, Kenney has struck a panel to explore Alberta having a role in international treaty development and ensuring local school boards and municipalities have provincial approval before “entering into agreements” with the federal government. But is “just because Quebec does it” really a solid justification for such costly plans?

The problem with Kenney’s “new fair deal” is it doesn’t increase oil prices, and it only adds to Alberta’s existing problem — overspending. (This would seem especially so for a provincial police force that Alberta last had in 1932 during the Great Depression, when it was disbanded as a cost-saving measure.)

What would it cost Alberta taxpayers to set up a police force for 1.5 million people that would replace nearly 4,200 total employees in 113 detachments in that province, in what is the second-biggest use of RCMP resources in the country?

But this isn’t just an issue for Alberta taxpayers. It quickly becomes an issue in Saskatchewan, where Moe has been remarkably uncritical of anything Kenney plans, even as they affect us.

But shouldn’t Moe be having a conversation with Kenney about the 2,669 Alberta-stationed RCMP constables (second only to the 5,529 RCMP officers in B.C.) who happened to be trained at the RCMP academy in Regina? What does the need for fewer RCMP training recruits do to plans to grow Saskatchewan by 200,000 people in the next 10 years?

Maybe Moe needs to understand “standing up for Saskatchewan” means more than just standing up to federal Liberals.