National Post, January 24, 2001
"An Open Letter to Ralph Klein"
by Stephen Harper, Stephen Harper, Tom Flanagan, Ted
Morton, Rainer Knopff, Andrew Crooks, and Ken
Boessenkool
Dear Premier Klein,
During and since the recent federal election, we have
been among a large number of Albertans discussing the
future of our province. We are not dismayed by the
outcome of the election so much as by the strategy
employed by the current federal government to secure its
re-election. In our view, the Chretien government
undertook a series of attacks not merely designed to
defeat its partisan opponents, but to marginalize
Alberta and Albertans within Canada’s political system.
One well-documented incident was the attack against
Alberta’s health care system. To your credit, you
vehemently protested the unprecedented attack ads that
the federal government launched against Alberta’s
policies – policies the Prime Minister had previously
found no fault with.
However, while your protest was necessary and
appreciated by Albertans, we believe that it is not
enough to respond only with protests. If the government
in Ottawa concludes that Alberta is a soft target, we
will be subjected to much worse than dishonest
television ads. The Prime Minister has already signaled
as much by announcing his so called "tough love"
campaign for the West.
We believe the time has come for Albertans to take
greater charge of our own future. This means resuming
control of the powers that we possess under the
constitution of Canada but that we have allowed the
federal government to exercise. Intelligent use of these
powers will help Alberta build a prosperous future in
spite of a misguided and increasingly hostile government
in Ottawa.
Under the heading of the "Alberta Agenda," we propose
that our province move forward on the following fronts:
* Withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan to create an
Alberta Pension Plan offering the same benefits at lower
cost while giving Alberta control over the investment
fund. Pensions are a provincial responsibility under
section 94A of the Constitution Act. 1867; and the
legislation setting up the Canada Pension Plan permits a
province to run its own plan, as Quebec has done from
the beginning. If Quebec can do it, why not Alberta?
* Collect our own revenue from personal income tax,
as we already do for corporate income tax. Now that your
government has made the historic innovation of the
single-rate personal income tax, there is no reason to
have Ottawa collect our revenue. Any incremental cost of
collecting our own personal income tax would be far
outweighed by the policy flexibility that Alberta would
gain, as Quebec’s experience has shown.
* Start preparing now to let the contract with the
RCMP run out in 2012 and create an Alberta Provincial
Police Force. Alberta is a major province. Like the
other major provinces of Ontario and Quebec, we should
have our own provincial police force. We have no doubt
that Alberta can run a more efficient and effective
police force than Ottawa can – one that will not be
misused as a laboratory for experiments in social
engineering.
* Resume provincial responsibility for health-care
policy. If Ottawa objects to provincial policy, fight in
the courts. If we lose, we can afford the financial
penalties that Ottawa may try to impose under the Canada
Health Act. Albertans deserve better than the long
waiting periods and technological backwardness that are
rapidly coming to characterize Canadian medicine.
Alberta should also argue that each province should
raise its own revenue for health care – i.e., replace
Canada Health and Social Transfer cash with tax points
as Quebec has argued for many years. Poorer provinces
would continue to rely on Equalization to ensure they
have adequate revenues.
* Use section 88 of the Supreme Court’s decision in
the Quebec Secession Reference to force Senate reform
back onto the national agenda. Our reading of that
decision is that the federal government and other
provinces must seriously consider a proposal for
constitutional reform endorsed by "a clear majority on a
clear question" in a provincial referendum. You acted
decisively once before to hold a senatorial election.
Now is the time to drive the issue further.
All of these steps can be taken using the
constitutional powers that Alberta now possesses. In
addition, we believe it is imperative for you to take
all possible political and legal measures to reduce the
financial drain on Alberta caused by Canada’s
tax-and-transfer system. The most recent Alberta
Treasury estimates are that Albertans transfer $2,600
per capita annually to other Canadians, for a total
outflow from our province approaching $8 billion a year.
The same federal politicians who accuse us of not
sharing their "Canadian values" have no compunction
about appropriating our Canadian dollars to buy votes
elsewhere in the country.
Mr. Premier, we acknowledge the constructive reforms
that your government made in the 1990s—balancing the
budget, paying down the provincial debt, privatizing
government services, getting Albertans off welfare and
into jobs, introducing a single-rate tax, pulling
government out of the business of subsidizing business,
and many other beneficial changes. But no government can
rest on its laurels. An economic slowdown, and perhaps
even recession, threatens North America, the government
in Ottawa will be tempted to take advantage of Alberta’s
prosperity, to redistribute income from Alberta to
residents of other provinces in order to keep itself in
power. It is imperative to take the initiative, to build
firewalls around Alberta, to limit the extent to which
an aggressive and hostile federal government can
encroach upon legitimate provincial jurisdiction.
Once Alberta’s position is secured, only our
imagination will limit the prospects for extending the
reform agenda that your government undertook eight years
ago. To cite only a few examples, lower taxes will
unleash the energies of the private sector, easing
conditions for Charter Schools will help individual
freedom and improve public education, and greater use of
the referendum and initiative will bring Albertans into
closer touch with their own government.
The precondition for the success of this Alberta
Agenda is the exercise of all our legitimate provincial
jurisdictions under the constitution of Canada. Starting
to act now will secure the future for all Albertans.
Sincerely yours,
STEPHEN HARPER, President, National Citizen’s
Coalition;
TOM FLANAGAN, professor of political science and
former Direct of Research, Reform Party of Canada;
TED MORTON, professor political science and Alberta
Senator-elect;
RAINER KNOPPF, professor of political science;
ANDREW CROOKS, Chairman, Canadian Taxpayers
Federation;
KEN BOSSENKOOL Boessenkool, former policy advisor to
Stockwell Day, Treasurer of Alberta.
This letter represents the personal views of its
authors and not those of any organizations with which
they are or have been connected.
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