Saskatchewan Premier Scott Mow has asked a former Saskatchewan Party MP and a former MP who was recently part of the Wexit movement to host “inside” meetings to increase Saskatchewan’s autonomy.
Alan Kerpan – who was in opposition to the Saskatchewan Party and was also a Reform MP – and veteran SP MLA Lyle Stewart (Thunder Creek) were selected by Moe to lead closed-door meetings in the province this month.
“The prime minister has been talking about some kind of independence from Ottawa for quite some time in terms of the economy,” Kerpan told CBC Morning host Ted Deller on Monday.
Kerpan said he and Mo have been meeting for the past few months and now he has been asked to “try to gauge the opinion and feelings of the people who live in our province.”
He says that after a few meetings a theme emerges.
“People are saying let’s be more like Quebec — in other words, let’s give back to our province the powers that were originally given to our province under the Constitution.
“I think [Quebec’s] the estrangement with Ottawa was probably more culturally based. Ours is probably more economical, although culture comes into it as well.”
In 2021-22, $3.46 billion, or 19.1 per cent of Saskatchewan’s total revenue, came through transfers from the federal government.
Kerpan said he’s “not looking for Confederation to really change,” but said Saskatchewan and all the other provinces “can all be a nation within a nation.”
A national survey released in April asked whether respondents wanted their provinces to do more to develop an identity separate from Canada. In Saskatchewan, 40 per cent said they liked the status quo and 24 per cent said they wanted the province to do more to differentiate itself.
Kerpan says he does not support the secession movement.
“I’m not interested in independence from Confederation, but I’m certainly very interested in some kind of independence from Ottawa,” he said.
Kerpan hosted a series of town hall meetings in 2019organized by Wexit Saskatchewan, which asked, “Can the federation be fixed?”
Kerpan said at the time, “I’d rather take a serious look at western, independent Saskatchewan than suffer through another four years [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau.”
Kerpan looks at energy and environmental policies
When asked about specific problem areas, Kerpan pointed to pipeline projects, Bills C-48 and C-69 and the federal government’s carbon pricing system.
“We have no new pipelines to carry our oil and gas to markets,” he said. “That was a big problem.”
During the interview, Deller mentioned the federal government’s purchase of the $4.5 billion Trans Mountain pipeline project in 2018.
“We’ll see how it all plays out,” Deller said.
“And I’m still not convinced that this will be the end of things,” Kerpan replied.
Kerpan pointed to Bill C-69, passed in 2019, which allows the federal government to consider the effects of new resource projects on issues such as climate change, and Bill C-48, also passed in 2019, which bans tankers, carrying more than 12,500 metric tons of oil from a dock off the north coast of British Columbia.
Kerpan says this is a problem. Each province must have “control over its natural resources, which includes marketing them.”
On the federal government’s carbon tax, which was ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court in March 2021, Kerpan said the tax, combined with the new clean fuel regulations, are “very, very financially damaging to farmers.”
Moe has raised each of the issues Kerpan mentioned and has repeatedly said he is not interested in an independent Saskatchewan.
In 2020, he appointed Stewart as Legislative Secretary for Provincial Self-Government.
In November 2021, Moe said he wanted Saskatchewan to become “a nation within a nation.”
The government’s 2021 throne speech says it wants to “build a stronger, more independent Saskatchewan within Confederation.”
Lyle Stewart, left, Legislative Secretary responsible for provincial autonomy, will join Alan Kerpan in hosting a series of meetings on provincial autonomy. (CBC News)
In one of the first internal meetings, Kerpan said he “loved” the idea one participant suggested that Saskatchewan collect its own income tax.
Asked how representative the meetings would be given that they were not open to the public, Kerpan said those interested should contact MLAs: “I’m sure no one will be turned away.”
Kerpan said his tour is “essentially the same thing” as the current tour of the province being done by new NDP Leader Carla Beck.
Accessibility is more urgent than autonomy: Beck
On Monday, opposition leader Carla Beck said the government was focusing on autonomy when it had to deal with inflation and the added cost of living.
Beck says affordability, education and health care are the main issues that concern people in the province.
“It’s fair to say there’s an expressed frustration with the federal government,” Beck said, but he said holding closed-door meetings that could shape public policy is “disturbing.”
“I’m not sure how fanning the flames of separatism and growing division helps address the things that the people of Saskatchewan really need to be addressed by all levels of government,” she said.
If this is a government priority, she says, it should allow the meetings to be open to the public and should publish the findings.
Beck said the meetings at this point are not “representative.”
Kerpan’s expenses are covered
The government faction covers Kerpan’s expenses.
“No government funds from an MLA’s particular constituency will be used for his expenses,” said John Saltasuk, chief of staff for the government faction.
Saltasuk said Kerpan is a former MLA who “has remained engaged and interested in what Saskatchewan can achieve and what barriers exist to that success.”
“If anyone is interested in participating in these particular meetings, they can absolutely get in touch. You will see more public events in the coming weeks from our MLAs in other formats.”
LISTEN | Former MP Alan Kerpan on his meetings on provincial autonomy:
The Morning Edition – Sask12:05 The Government of Sask. holding a series of meetings to discuss provincial “autonomy”
Do you want Saskatchewan to have more of a say in how we are governed in Canada? Maybe you think we should be more like Quebec in a confederation? Our provincial government does, and it’s on its way to talking to people about the idea — privately — this summer.
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