Canada's Singular Province
Canada's provinces are all important to the federation, they are all different in geographical topography, natural resources, population numbers, economic opportunities and tourism attractions, let alone the positioning of manufacturing, mining, fishing, farming and other job opportunities for their populations.What they have in common is an equal regard within the federation, each appreciated for what it brings to the whole. Education opportunities, health-care assurances and social support when and as needed are important issues because the provinces are not equal in the sense that some are more resource-rich and economicallys table than others; some more dependent upon the vicissitudes of service industries, like tourism than others.
It is understood that within the federation that the federal government should speak with one voice, expressing the collective opinion and desires of the provinces and the territories. It was further resolved that to ensure relatively equal opportunity for its citizens whether they are from Tuktoyaktuk, Eqaluit, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Prince George, Victoria, Halifax or Toronto opportunities, as reasonably as possible, would be available to citizens of every province and territory.
The federal government taxes its citizens, as do the provinces. But from the coffers of the federal government, through its taxation base, additional supportive sums are transferred to each province or territory according to population numbers and economic need.
Transfer payments go out from Canada's governing seat in Ottawa to all the provinces and territories with the exception of the wealthier provinces, those whom it is deemed are sufficiently economically stable to look after themselves, like the provinces of Alberta and Ontario. This is a somewhat fluid situation, open to review; the economic fortunes of provinces can ebb and wane like the tide; sometimes a province formerly economically dependent could find itself needful of transfer payments (as did British Columbia) and at times relatively have-not provinces, discovering new sources of revenue through recently-discovered resources could see their transfer payments decline as their revenues through inner sources rose.
Throughout the tradition of separate-but-equal and part of the federation that makes up the country of Canada one province alone (despite occasional grumblings of dissatisfaction from others) has had a history of strenuously defying its place in the federation, declaring itself to be unalterably different, singular to the extent that it should be viewed as a nation in and of itself. This largely due to the French question; culture, language, and above all, expectations.
In short, within the federation Quebec prides itself in being a right royal pain in the collective arse. Above all, Quebec feels itself to be a knock-off of France, its culture and its heritage European in origin (as though the majority of Canadians haven't emigrated from one European culture or another through its history) and its place within the federation singular to the point that where the federal government exercises jurisdiction within other provinces and territories in key areas, Quebec should be exempt, and act in its own interests.
Over a long period of verbal strife, blackmail and intimidation, restless whingeing and threats to national unity Quebec has successfully leveraged its position to the point that the federal government now speaks of "assymetrical federalism". In many instances Quebec speaks for itself on the world stage, despite the fact that this is particularly irksome to the federal government which speaks for all of Canada and to which upstaging official Ottawa has never agreed. Quebec has been granted the mandate to exercise its own immigration rules. Quebec carries a big stick and thwacks often to remind the federal government and its sister provinces and territories that it is different, and entitled to respect in ways none others would demand.
Quebec governs itself as a responsibly-social-aware government. Its powerful unions have a good deal to say about the direction their governments take. Trouble is, Quebec pursues its excellent social programs too often to the detriment of its federation partners. Its unions demand that union workers from outside the province not be given job opportunities within the province, while their own union workers have freedom of job opportunities in other provinces.
Within a supposedly-egalitarian society, Quebec encourages practises that are deleterious to Quebec women by delaying opportunities for medical abortion so long that desperate women go outside the province to obtain abortions, or go to private clinics inside the province and pay for these procedures personally, while Quebec refuses to reimburse them. Finally, the Quebec Superior Court came to the defence of women (as many as 45,000 who had been treated in this injurious manner), to order the provincial government to repay these women for authorized abortion procedures.
Similarly, when Quebec residents seek medical treatment outside the Province of Quebec, the province refuses to pay the medical and physician fees authorized by law within its sister provinces, leaving hospitals and private clinics, and doctors high and dry, waiting for fair reimbursement. This situation has long been a thorn in the side of medical practitioners and hospitals outside the Province of Quebec.
Quebec prides itself on its inexpensive day care program for children of working women. There are no health care premiums imposed upon the residents of Quebec. Dental care is also provided through a provincial program for its citizens. Social services are the envy of other provinces, including one of its wealthy neighbours, Ontario. The Province of Ontario has had to re-impose a health care premium (long abolished by earlier provincial Ontario governments) upon its residents in a bid to balance its budget. There is no free dental services in the Province of Ontario. Ontario has no universal, inexpensive child care program such as Quebec's.
Yet "rich" Ontario is required to agree to large transfer payments to the Province of Quebec to enable Quebec to operate its social programs, while having to cut back on its own. Despite which, Quebec insists that it gives more to the federal government through taxation than it receives back in provincial operating costs and transfer payments. And Quebec continues to insist the transfer payments it receives are insufficient and should be revised upwaard.
Quebec, it cannot be denied, is a singular province. It is singularly demanding, singularly selfish, singularly absent conscience when it comes to fairness within the federation. Moreover, it is singularly irritating in its constant demands, its insistence on threatening the rest of Canada with imminent separation where it can finally take its exalted place on the world stage as a singular nation, completely sovereign.
It can't happen soon enough.
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, August 20, 2006
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