4
THE LEADER THURSDAY MORNING, APRIL 23, 1908.
ASSEMBLY OPENED.
(Continued from page 1.)
MONDAY, April 20th.
The House did not sit over an hour
today but in that space of time considerable business was transacted and the
Address in reply to the Speech from
the Throne passed.
The Speaker took
the Chair at 2.45 p.m. Petitions were
presented as follows:—
By
Dr. DeVeber asking for amendments to the Ordinance incorporating
the Galt Hospital; also asking for
amendments to the Municipal Ordinance to enlarge the powers of Lethbridge.
By
Mr. Shera asking for the incorporation of the Bishop of the Russian
Greek Catholic Orthodox Church.
The following Bills were introduced
and read a first time:—
By
Mr. Young –To incorporate the
Western Canada Historical Society; to
amend the city charter of Calgary; to
amend the Ordinance to incorporate
the Calgary General Hospital.
By
A. S. Smith—To amend the Ordinance incorporating Moosomin.
By
Premier Haultain—Respecting
Foreign Companies; Voluntary Winding-Up of Joint Stock Companies; to
Secure Uniform Conditions in Policies
of Fire Insurance; respecting Mutual
Fire Insurance; to provide for the
payment of Succession Duties in Certain Cases; respecting Notaries Public.
Before the Orders of the Day were
called
Premier Haultain laid on the
Table of the House the correspondence
with the Dominion authorities relating
to the Memorial of the Assembly of
May 2nd, 1900, upon the financial and
constitutional position of the Territories; also the report of the Attorney- General's
department with reference to
liquor licences.
THE ADDRESS IN REPLY.
The Address in Reply to the Speech
from the Throne was then moved by
Mr. Finlay (Medicine Hat). After
touching briefly on the King's illness
and Coronation, the general prosperity
of the Territories and the consequent
increase in responsibilities devolving
on the Assembly, the speaker referred
to the efforts made by the Territorial
Government to secure provincial autonomy and failing in that, a largely increased
grant. He declared himself
as being strongly in favor of provincial
autonomy and stated that he could not
understand why the Dominion Government should persist in refusing to give
it. He would not uphold the Government in doing wrong. He was there as
a North-West man to uphold the
rights of the North-West. The Dominion Government was doing a great
injustice to the North-West by not
granting what was their due. They
had by giving the Territories ten
members in the House of Commons
acknowledged that there was a population of 250,000 in this country, and why
then, asked the speaker, do they not
grant us provincial autonomy; why
not give us a larger grant? After
touching on the question of transportation, the public domain, tranfer of
the land titles offices, etc., Mr. Finlay
declared in conclusion that he would be
thoroughly independent in treating all
questions and he hoped the House
would continue to carry out that inde
pendent spirit which it had maintained
to the present time.
MR. MACNUTT SECONDS.
Mr. MacNutt (Saltcoats) in seconding
the Address in Reply said he would
not deal with the many questions referred to in the Speech as in the later
discussions in the House these would
be fully dealt with. On the subject of
provincial autonomy, however, he expressed himselt strongly, and said that
the sessions of the Territorial Assembly
should not be dependent on the sessions
of Parliament at Ottawa. The correspondence which had been laid on the
Table of the House showed the strenuous efforts made by the local Government to secure
autonomy and he believed in keeping up the correspondence
until the Dominion Government became so weary of it that they would
grant the request. It was an injustice
for the Dominion Government to send
in immigrants from all parts of the
earth by tens and tens of thousands
and not provide the wherewithal to
give these people educational, transportation and other facilities necessary
in the country. On the question of
transportation Mr. MacNutt said the
natural resources of his part of the
country could not be taken advantage of for lack of the necessary
facilities.
PREMIER HAULTAIN.
Premier Haultain was the next
speaker. He said that under ordinary
circumstances he would not be addressing the House just then. The usual
procedure was for the leader of the
Opposition to follow the mover and
seconder and make what criticisms he
had to offer on the policy of the Government, and then the leader of the
Government spoke in reply. He took
the absence of any such speech from
the leader of the Opposition, or his
representtive, as significant, and as
implying that as the Speech from the
Throne outlined subjects of such overwhelming importance to the Territories
the Opposition were going to join with
all the other Members in trying to
come to some united action, on those
important subjects. (Cheers.) This
condition augured well for the successful meeting of the difficulties of the
unfortunate position in which they
found themselves at present.
The Premier then congratulated the
mover and seconder on the able manner in which they had performed their
duties and went on to speak of the
King's illness and Coronation. He
dwelt on the significance of the latter
ceremony and amid hearty cheers
spoke eloquently of Britain as a free
land for a free people. While it
had been a great year in Imperial
events it had also been a momentous
year for the Territories. In speaking
of their growth and added responsibilities they did not do so in a pessimistic
or hopeless spirit. All they asked was
that they should be in a position to
meet those responsibilities, and he
believed they were fully as capable of
doing so as the people in any other
portion of Canada. This was in fact
the burden of the Speech from the
Throne. It would be an unfortunate
thing if the people, and Government
and Legislature of the Territories
should have to approach the Government of Canada with the methods of
the unfortunate widow, as referred to
by the hon. member for Saltcoats. It
would be unfortunate for the Dominion
Government to be placed in the position of the unjust judge, forced to
recognise the widow's rights by reason
of her importunities. More forcible
means than those employed by the
Territorial Government to gain these
rights could not have been used than
were used. They had resorted to
everything short of force.
NEGOTIATIONS FOR LARGER GRANT.
The financial question, said the
Premier, is one of the immedite
present. We have a plain duty to the
people at the present time. In the
financial statement we submitted to
the Federal Government we took the
ground that the point we had reached
had been arrived at largely through
the want of consideration paid to our
requests made in previous years. The
financial position has been growing
more aggravated and difficult for the
past ten years and our needs have been
growing rapidly year by year. In our
negotiations with the Dominion
authorities we set forth that it was
absolutely necessary in order to carry
on the work for this year, that is the
Dominion fiscal year beginning 1st of
July next, that we be given the sum of
$880,000 and $250,000 as supplementary
to meet the expenditures for the
current year to June 30th next. New
settlers are coming in, largely through
the efforts of the immigration movement, and it would be unfortunate to
meet them with a large tax bill on
their arrival. We pointed out that
unless the Government provided for
the necessary roads, bridges, schools,
etc., the people must pay additional
taxes.
ADVANCES ON CAPITAL ACCOUNT.
I saw the other day in THE LEADER,
continued the Premier, a telegram
announcing in general terms the action
to be taken by the Government. As
yet we have not been officially informed what action the Government propose to take.
In THE LEADER, however, I saw that a supplementary
amount would be voted to meet the
overdraft for this year, and that
instead of a larger grant being granted
we would be given something on capital account. I would like to inform
the House and country that the Territorial Government did not ask for
anything on capital account. (Cheers.)
The suggestion of a capital advance
runs through all the correspondence
on this subject for a great many years.
We have pointed out that the whole
burden of capital expenditure has been
thrown on the current revenues of this
country, which we claimed were
inadequate even as revenue. But we
did not ask for an advance on capital
account. It is bad enough to have to
try to meet expenditures which are
purely capital expenditures out of
revenue but it would be still worse to
have money which really belongs to us
as revenue chargeable to capital.
PROVINCIAL AUTONOMY.
With regard to the provincial question itself, we have stated it as clearly
as possible. We are not theorists,but
sincere, practical men making a practical proposition with regard to a
practical question. We stand on
the principle that this country must
mange its own affairs. In a letter to
the Minister of the Interior, dated 31st
January last, I said: "We demand
that system of government under
which we shall have as full opportuniies for the exercise of our citizenship
as our fellow-citizens in the provinces.
The local Government and Legislature
should have full and free scope of
action left to them on many subjects
which relate to the prosperity and
happiness of the country and the
North-West will not be satisfied until
this is granted."That, said Mr. Haultain, is the position we take.
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