Saskatchewan is asserting provincial jurisdiction over its natural resources with the introduction of the “Saskatchewan First Act,” which the province says will fend off “intrusive federal policies.”
“This historic legislation will help protect our economic growth and prosperity from intrusive federal policies that encroach upon our legislative sovereignty,” said Bronwyn Eyre, Saskatchewan’s justice minister and attorney general, in a Nov. 1 news release.
The Act, introduced as Bill No. 88, amends the Constitution of Saskatchewan to confirm the province’s autonomy and exclusive legislative jurisdiction under the Constitution of Canada over areas including the following: Exploration of non-renewable natural resources;
Develop, conserve, and manage non-renewable natural and forestry resources;
Operation of sites and facilities for generating and producing electrical energy;
Regulation of fertilizer use, including application, production, quantities, and emissions;
Regulation of all industries and businesses falling within the exclusive jurisdiction of Saskatchewan. “This legislation asserts that the constitutional doctrine of interjurisdictional immunity applies to exclusive provincial legislative jurisdiction the same way it applies to exclusive federal jurisdiction,” said Eyre….