Former UCP MLA suggests Alberta should seek Northern expansion for coastal access

EDMONTON — Former UCP MLA Shane Getson is pitching territorial expansion as a solution to Alberta's long-standing challenge of securing additional routes to tidewater, suggesting that Alberta and Saskatchewan expanding into Canada's Northern territories could prove mutually beneficial."Why don't Saskatchewan and Alberta, the only two landlocked provinces, get access to deep seaport access or oceanfront property?" Getson said during an interview with the Western Standard.Getson served as the Parliamentary Secretary for Economic Corridor Development for roughly four years before resigning as an elected official on October 26.His work focused on economic corridors, connected networks of infrastructure designed to move goods, resources, people and services between regions and markets more efficiently..Getting Alberta's resources to tidewater has been a longstanding challenge for successive Alberta governments.Alberta has historically had mixed success in attempting to work with Ottawa, BC and the US to secure additional tidewater access, but Getson suggests the solution could lie in the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut."The provinces then could expand and open that up," Getson said. "The territories and the provinces merge, there you go.""Now you've got Alberta and Saskatchewan, deep-sea port access, and you've got Alberta arguably being the connecting point between Montana and Alaska. That changes the dynamics vastly."The former MLA is so passionate about the idea that he passionately spoke about it in May during what turned out to be his final statement in the Legislature. .Getson believes access to the Arctic Ocean could be particularly advantageous, pointing to the European Union's increased presence and focus in the region and saying it will become a major economic centre over the next 20 years."But that Arctic, be bold about it," Getson said. "Start driving in railroads. Start driving in things and connecting us. Get the ports going again.""And that was the whole concept. Build these corridors in concept on paper. Say what the rules are. Allow the rules and regulations to take place. And investment wants to go in there like you wouldn't believe."Beyond providing coastal access for Alberta and Saskatchewan and southern transportation connections for the territories, Getson said territorial residents would benefit from a larger voice in Canada and closer ties with the two provinces."Like, practically, if you were looking at how many people you would need, so my constituency has more voting base than the Northwest Territories," Getson said. "Like you have to sink in the population side.".Some might hear Getson's proposal and dismiss it as "crazy" or "impractical," but the former MLA cautions against that."I think notionally, the folks that I've talked to, there's a bit of a construct that kind of keeps us in our boxes because we get fixated on what has happened in the last 40-50 years, and we have one flag and one box and one border," Getson said."But when you think about our country is still just in its infancy, and you start to look at what it could be going forward for the next couple 100 years."The process would require a constitutional amendment, a prospect that would face a significant hurdle given the level of support required.Amending the Constitution to extend provincial boundaries into the territories requires approval from seven provinces representing at least 50% of Canada's population, along with approval from the House of Commons and Senate..In this situation, Alberta and Saskatchewan could contribute two provincial approvals, but the territories would not have a formal vote under the constitutional amending formula.The proposal would need support from at least five other provinces and would likely require backing from at least one of Ontario, Quebec or British Columbia to meet the population threshold."Constitutionally, two to five years, you could literally make those boundaries between us and the territories pretty fuzzy, and Alberta and Saskatchewan just expand, and we absorb the territories to a degree," Getson said."And we absolutely have Canada 2.0, and Northwest Canada would be the envy of the world for what we have."

Former UCP MLA suggests Alberta should seek Northern expansion for coastal access

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