NATURAL-RESOURCES AND CANADIAN FEDERALISM - DECENTRALIZATION, RECURRING CONFLICT, AND RESOLUTION

Canada has an unusual degree of decentralized authority over natural resources. A recurring challenge of resource policy has been to balance interrelated powers-of management and taxation by provincial governments and of trade and taxation by the federal government-when there is divergence in the goals of the two governments. Constitutional amendment in 1982 and federal-provincial negotiations in the 1970s and 1980s confirmed the need for accomodation. The result was to strengthen the decentralization of management, yet to recognize the legitimacy of the interests of both orders of government. Especially with the emergence of new types of interests in the resource sector, occasional frictions may be anticipated because of the interrelatedness of powers.