The promise of Canada’s confederation was good government was to be achieved by allocating certain sovereign powers to each of the federal and provincial governments. It gave preference to the provinces, as being closer to the people..The current federal executive is destroying that promise by concentrating its power in the federal parliament and seizing powers from the provinces..Ownership of natural resources has been a core provincial sovereignty. The federal government's Impact Assessment Act (IAA) is therefore expropriation without compensation that undermines the constitutional structure of the country, according to the May 10 2022 ruling of the Court of Appeal of Alberta. The Supreme Court is now considering its constitutionality..The Alberta court set out persuasive positions which the Supreme Court will have difficulty disregarding. But odds are that they will. The majority of the court has been appointed by Justin Trudeau..The most likely scenario is that the top court will give everyone a veto on every project. The federal government, the provincial government and the indigenous people would all have vetoes. Investment in resource projects would grind to a halt. The court does not consider the economic welfare of the country..Will a future Conservative federal government be able to reverse it? Once Ontario and Quebec have control, they are unlikely to allow it to be taken it away..Canada’s confederation is currently defined by two broad changes; the federal executive is sweeping away all checks against its power (in Parliament and Confederation,) and Quebec is increasing its autonomy..Our first line of defence is to fight against the federal executive’s ambition. But we should also consider just taking what Quebec already has: autonomy..Quebec's claim to autonomy is based on two things, economic independence and a socio-political cause..Alberta can achieve economic independence by teaming up with Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the indigenous people of the Prairies, to create a free-trade utility corridor from Alberta to Port Nelson on Hudson Bay. The NeeStaNan (Cree for ‘working together) corridor would be indigenous-owned and would carry to the world potash, oil and gas, food products, hydrogen and everything that the Prairies produce..Political autonomy can be achieved by the three prairie provinces coming together to form the Prairie Autonomous Region. There are 40 countries in the world with autonomous regions; because of the nature of its relationship with Quebec, Canada is considered to be one of them. The Prairies should simply have what Quebec already has..The socio-political cause of the prairies is as great, if not greater than that of Quebec. The prairie provinces are founded upon the treaties between the Crown and the first peoples of the prairies. Through those treaties, outsiders were invited to come to these Prairie lands and build a new society. The indigenous oral history (which has legal status) is the vision of the elders was there was to be a new society, not European, not indigenous, but the best of both. The best of the indigenous is their concept of self-sovereignty and bottom-up governance, along with balance with nature. The best of the 'invitees' is their entrepreneurship and self-initiative. The mandate of the Prairie Autonomous Region is to fulfill that vision..Self-sovereignty, dignity and prosperity are cornerstones of that vision. The mandate of Prairie autonomy within Canada pre-empts the ambitions of the federal executive and constitutional manipulations..The foundation of the Prairies is built on peace, collaboration and respect for self-sovereignty. Expressing those virtues through an autonomous region with bottom-up governance and driven toward prosperity founded in responsibility could prove to be an example that all Canadians could follow..Randy Royer is a Calgary businessman and author of the recently published book, 'Alberta Should Lead, not Leave.'
