44 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The attempt to broaden the powers of the financial Committee 

 by other cognate executive functions was only partially successful, and 

 it was only in 1897 that provision was made by statute (60-61 Vic, 

 c. 28) for an Executive Council "chosen and summoned by the 

 Lieutenant-Governor ... to aid and advise in the Government 

 of the Territories." Within the limits of the Territories Acts the 

 functions of such an Executive Council were now practically indis- 

 tinguishable from those of the "Cabinet" in the government of the 

 Province or of the Dominion. ^^ The year 1897, therefore, may be 

 said to mark the definite achievement of responsible government. 

 The next stage of development was the broadening of the scope of 

 territorial powers to the amplitude of provincial status. 



IV. From Territories to Provinces 



The achievement of provincial status for Alberta and Saskat- 

 chewan can scarcely be said to have passed into history, because, as 

 Lord Rosebery wrote of the Irish Union, it "has never passed out of 

 politics." This interplay of federal and local politics, and indeed 

 much of the normal development towards provincial status itself, lies 

 beyond the scope of this paper except insofar as Dominion policy has 

 restricted or modified the normal practices of responsible government. 



The restrictions of territorial status could be relied upon to 

 force a change. As early as 1901, Premier Haultain submitted a 

 draft bill for provincial organization to the federal government, 

 though even then more generous financial terms might possibly have 

 postponed the issue. The territories could not borrow money on the 

 public credit; they could not charter companies with the amplitude 

 of provincial powers. The direct administration of the Crown lands 

 of the territories from Ottawa and the exemption from taxation in 

 connection with the railway and other land grants strengthened the 

 demand for the "control of the public domain in the West, by the 

 West and for the West." With an assured prospect of provincial 

 status in the end the analogy between the inadequate and variable 

 grants from the Dominion to the territories and the fixed "legislative" 

 and "per capita" subsidies to the provinces, pointed the way to similar 

 "provincial terms" as the only escape from "financial necessity." 

 In general, therefore, the Alberta and Saskatchewan Acts of 1905 were 

 thus designed to accord the same rights and to impose the same 

 responsibility which other provinces of the Dominion had taken for 

 granted since 1867. 



"C/. Manitoba Act, s. 7; B.N. A. Act, 1867, s. 11. 



