CUTTING COSTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 173, 15 March 1932, Page 2

CUTTING COSTS

BURDEN OF GQVT. PROPOSAL TO AMALGAMATE THREE CANADIAN STATE PARLIAMENTS. FA V OURABLE RECEPTION YANCOUVER, February 29*. A proposal by the Premier of Manitoba, Mr. John Bracken, that the three Prairie P/rovinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alherta, be merged under a single Legislature is being actively apd favQurably discussed throughout Canada. Mr. Bracken's own picture of the advantages to be gained by the creation of one province where three now exist is in these words: — • "With nearly 100 less members in the Prairie Legislatures, with one session instead of three each -year, with avoidance of triplication in administration and of officials, commissions, and boards, with elimination of triplication of several university and other departments — and in a seore of other ways — I am of the opinion that whilp the immediate economy would be considerable, the ultimate saving as the years go by would reaeh to millions of dollars. If, in addition, the Prairie Provinces can be put into the position of being able to speak with a united voice in the councils of the Dominion it would seem to me to be of a very great advnntage." There are three Legislatures on th'e Prairie, containing 181 members — one member for every 13,000 persons, compared with one per 31,000 in Ontario and Quebec. There is a unity of interest on the Prairie, although in national affairs the effect is apt to be dissipated by three voices, speaking in different tones. Saskatchewan has a Conservative Government, in sympathy with the Bennett Government at Otta\ya; Manitoba's majority is Progressive, leaning to Liberalism; Alberta is controlled hy the United Farmers' Party. The two latter are the sole survivors of the third party movement which held the balance of power at Ottawa during the Mackenzie King regime. An Old Complaint The Bracken plan is an ontcome of the old complaint that Canada is overgoverned, having nine Provincial Governments, in addition to the Federal authority, for a few more than 10,000,000 people — much the same proportion as prevails in Australia. The three Maritime Provinces, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, together have only 1,000,000 people. The three Prairie Provinces have 2,400,000; the proposed merger would create a province of 758,000 square miles, the largest in Canada, but with a population a million less than Ontario and half a million less than Quebec. Critics of Mr. Bracken's proposal, who are numerous, particularly in Manitoba, declare the nnion of the Prairies would make an area incapable of efficient administration from one centre, although a vast portion of the territory is uninhabited or so thinly settled that its government is a simple matter. * Practical diffieulties include the prospective capital and the disposition of legislative buildings and universities. The logical administrative centre would be

Regina, the present capital of Saskatchewan, but nobody believes Winnipeg, the largest city on the Prairie, would acquiese without great ohjecCon. In good times, with a big flow of immigration and stable prices of wheat, the-project would be regarded as a pleasant pipe dream; nowadays, when revenues are down and Provincial Treasurers are economising, it is felt to be quite practical. But one thinks the main body of public opinion would hestitate to scrap two or three pretentious groups of autonomous government, as Mr. Bracken contemplates.