Devolution and Constitutional Development in the Canadian North

David E. Smith is a professor of Political Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan and author of Jimmy Gardiner: Relentless Liberal.

This book, the product of an innovative research strategy, offers six
useful case studies of devolution and sector management in the North (on
forests, wildlife, health care [twice], local government, and oil and
gas), as well as four thematic chapters on devolution (for example, its
impact on regionalism).

In 1987, six university researchers in the Prairies, Ontario, and the
Maritimes formed the Consortium for Devolution Research. With support
from the Donner Canadian Foundation they sought to promote collaboration
between academics and northern governmental and aboriginal
representatives in formulating research plans and discussing findings.
The strategy was not an unqualified success, and the explanation of why
it was not is an important contribution of this book.

So, too, is the analysis of devolution, which each of the authors
demonstrates is a multifaceted procedure involving executive,
legislative, and administrative elements of differential significance in
the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. In some respects, devolution
can be viewed as the culmination of the struggle for responsible
government seen on the Prairies a century ago; in other respects,
particularly in the role now claimed by aboriginal peoples, it is quite
different.

Constitutional events of the 1980s, the Charter, the new amending
formula, and Meech Lake have accelerated the devolution process (defined
as the transfer of provincelike powers). At the same time, they have
made the achievement of provincial status more remote.