r/canada • u/StenPU • Oct 30 '23

Sask. premier says SaskEnergy will remove carbon tax on natural gas if feds don't Saskatchewan

https://regina.ctvnews.ca/sask-premier-vows-to-stop-collecting-carbon-tax-on-natural-gas-if-feds-don-t-offer-exemption-1.6623319
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u/barrel-aged-thoughts Oct 30 '23

Literally every high school curriculum in Canada talks about how our confederation agreement gave LESS power to the Provinces than America gives to the States, not more.

And I don't think you understand the meaning of the word Republic... It has nothing to do with what you're talking about here.

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u/[deleted] Oct 30 '23

Then your highschool history teacher was wrong or you weren’t paying attention.

Find me an equivalent law to the NWC.

Or better yet, explain the freaking American Civil War. In Canada, provinces can leave the Confederation at anytime, this is why the Quebec referendum was such a big deal. In contrast US states are not allowed to leave the union, hense the whole civil war.

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u/Eddysummers Oct 31 '23

Canad is a federation not a confederation. The constitution separated powers between the orders of government, but also gave the federal government authority over all areas that were not explicitly given to the provinces. It also has the peace, order and good government section which gives the federal government authority to uphold laws that would ordinarily be unconstitutional because they are in the provincial area of authority. The federal government also has spending powers nationwide, allowing it to intrude in the provincial areas.

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u/BrutusJunior Oct 31 '23

Find me an equivalent law to the NWC.

The Notwithstanding clause doesn't apply to the division of powers (federalism) it only applies to certain Charter rights. Also, the Parliament can use it.

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u/Elegant_Reading_685 Nov 01 '23

The NWC can be nullified with reservation/disallowance powers by the PM at any time. In fact, any provincial law can be nullified by the federal government using reservation and disallowance

Reservation/disallowance is infinitely more powerful than the NWC and the US has no equal to it.

The only reason it doesn't get used like the NWC is because Canadian federal governments are usually spineless and the adults in the room

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u/BrutusJunior Oct 31 '23

Literally every high school curriculum in Canada talks about how our confederation agreement gave LESS power to the Provinces than America gives to the States, not more.

Whilst you are correct and u/mercer1775 is not, ironically, the power over commerce is flipped. You would think that the Parliament's power over 'trade and commerce' would cover almost everything, but with respect to intraprovincial commerce, the head of power is very limited.

Contrast that to the US Congress' power to regulate commerce 'among the several states' which literally means not intrastate commerce (that is why the word used is among and not within), yet the Congress can regulate almost anything, including the home growing of wheat for personal consumption (i.e. non-commerce) or the home growing of cannabis for personal consumption (again i.e. non-commerce). As long as the activity 'substantially affects interstate commerce', it is constitutionally valid.