Remember your history

In February 1966, the government of then-prime minister Lester B Pearson provided $300 million to assist Manitoba with Nelson River hydroelectric development.

According to the House of Commons Hansard, the federal government would finance, construct and own the high voltage transmission lines required to move Nelson River power to the international (North Dakota and Minnesota) and interprovincial (Saskatchewan and Ontario) borders and potential export markets.

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, a federal Crown corporation, was given the job of overseeing the construction of the hydro towers and lines. Manitoba Hydro purchased the vital infrastructure from the federal government a few years later when the Nelson River was generating electricity and revenue.

Around 1966, Newfoundland was trying to develop Churchill Falls. Is there any mention to be found in the House of Assembly Hansard about Manitoba’s and Ottawa’s cozy relationship?

Excuse me, I mean co-operative federalism in an early incarnation.

Was there any federal money for Newfoundland to develop Churchill Falls or pay for transmission lines across Quebec to potential export markets in 1966 or at any other time?

Were then-premier Jean Lesage of Quebec and his natural resources minister, Rene Levesque, too big and tough to stand up to for Pearson and Jack Pickersgill, Newfoundland’s representative in the federal cabinet?

Pickersgill started life as a Manitoba farm boy, but it was the Newfoundland voter who helped him realize his dreams of becoming an elected federal politician and cabinet minister.

Did the federal government abandon Newfoundland to the ambitions and tender mercies of Quebec? Mike (Pearson’s nickname) and Jack were eager confederates of Joe Smallwood in 1948-1949. “Come into my parlour,” said the spider to the fly. “Let me in. It’s cold,” sighed the snake.

There was a constitutional duty to assure the province’s right to get her manufactured goods, in this case hydroelectricity, across any and all interprovincial boundaries.

Quebec has never accepted the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council’s decision of 1927. That province’s first reaction on learning of the award of Labrador to Newfoundland was to blame Ottawa’s stupidity and incompetence for losing. The next and far lasting reaction was to accuse Newfoundland of stealing her land, of cheating her out of what Ottawa had giver her in 1912 although it wasn’t Ottawa’s to give.

In the words of able scholars Peter Neary and Patrick O’flaherty, “Thanks to good management and clever argument, a coast had become an empire. Quebec balked, but Newfoundland possessed.”

Before a matter is brought to arbitration, both parties in the dispute agree to abide by the arbitrator’s decision. Indeed, recourse to arbitration implies an engagement to submit in good faith to the award.

Quebec is a constituent part of Canada and had a long history in North America before Confederation. The JCPC dispute and decision was an international event outside Quebec’s purview.

Is Quebec’s behavior since 1927 (Maurice Duplessis growling and threatening in 1948-49, the revenge of geography of Lesage and Levesque in the 1960s, the nationalist idea of maître chez nous) some evidence of Canada’s reluctance to accept the JCPC decision?

In international matters, and the boundary dispute and decision was such a matter, Ottawa bears responsibility for Quebec’s behaviour.

If, in any talks with Quebec or Hydro Quebec on a future Churchill Falls power contract post 2041, and the federal government offers to help facilitate the negotiations, Newfoundland and Labrador and its Crown corporation, NL Hydro, should respectfully or otherwise decline Ottawa’s offer.

I recommend you remember your history.