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"A This Morning roundtable" On Feb. 7, 2001, the CBC radio program This Morning held a public forum on the question of western alienation. The host was Michael Enright and the panelists were:
"What the West wants" by Lorne Gunter Assignment: Explain western alienation through the filter of the special CBC Radio forum on the subject held February 7, 2001. "The Alberta agenda" In the wake of last year’s federal election, six prominent Albertans—Stephen Harper, Tom Flanagan, Ted Morton, Rainer Knopff, Andrew Crooks and Ken Boessenkool—published an open letter to Premier Ralph Klein, arguing that their province should take advantage of its constitutional rights and in effect repatriate certain powers to the provincial government. Here is the full text of their letter. "CAR: The competitive access rate for rail" by David Goffin Canada’s bulk shippers are proposing a new mechanism for assuring competitive access to the nation’s railway infrastructure. “Competitive access rates” (CAR) would modify the current system of “competitive line rates” by giving captive shippers stronger guarantees of their right to interconnect with non-local railways and streamlining Canadian Transportation Agency. The railways’ opposition to CAR is overblown. "Open market access in rail" by Glenn Scott The Canadian Transportation Act Review Panel is currently evaluating the operations of Canada’s railway sector. Rail shippers, many of whom have no practicable transportation alternatives, want to increase competition among rail carriers. They’d like: the right to run services on existing infrastructure for anyone who could show they were fit, willing and able to do it; greater disciplines on rates charged between production sites and railway interconnections; and regulatory encouragement for regional rail carriers to compete with the large national carriers. "Quebec's choice: Affirmation, autonomy and leadership" by Benoît Pelletier In the preliminary report of its Special Committee on the Political and Constitutional Future of Quebec Society, which is currently being reviewed by party members and the public at large, the Quebec Liberal Party proposes different avenues for arriving at changes, both constitutional and non-constitutional, that would make the Canadian federation more flexible, would confirm Quebec’s specificity within Canada, and would help it return to a leadership role among the provinces. "The revolution is dead. Long live the revolution!" by Jim Stanford Last month Policy Options presented William Watson’s “Has neo-conservatism failed?,” which was originally written for the Delta Marsh retreat of the Department of Economics at the University of Manitoba. Another presenter at that conference was Jim Stanford, economist at the Canadian Auto Workers, regular columnist with the Globe and Mail and frequent contributor to Policy Options. Here is the written version of his remarks. Both speakers were asked to consider the question ”How has neo-conservatism changed Canada?” "Opposed triangles: Policy-making and regulation in Canada and the United States" by Eugene Donati The US and Canada go about policy-making and regulation-writing in exactly the opposite way. Canada starts with broad consultations and then gradually limits public participation as the process moves through legislation to the enactment of rules. The US starts with narrow participation as new laws are proposed but then opens up the discussion to universal comment at and even after the rule-making stage. In its ideal state, the Canadian system has virtues that might make it a model for the world. "Improving the governance of airport authorities" by J.A.A. Lovink Although the privatization of Canada’s airports to local airport authorities (LAAs) has generally worked well, some fine-tuning is in order. There is no formal means for ensuring that major decisions by LAA managements, with their purely local and regional accountabilities, do not have negative consequences for the national system of air transportation. There is currently no requirement that the costs of operation be allocated fairly across the principal groups of airport users. And there is pressing need for a close look at the airports’ heavy reliance on airport improvement fees. "The Marshall decision and the government's duty to regulate" by Tom Isaac Canada’s courts have made clear that in respecting Aboriginals’ treaty rights to hunt and fish governments may nevertheless continue to regulate fish and animal stocks and also attend to the interests of non-Aboriginals. The courts have not generally spelled out how this can be done, however. Some admittedly modest guidelines may help to move the process along. The current Atlantic Fisheries Policy Review presents an opportunity to try to apply them. |
