Article

Natural Resources Transfer Acts 1930

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited July 3, 2015

Under these 3 Acts - one each for Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - the federal government turned over to the Prairie provinces the jurisdiction that it had exercised over the crown lands and natural resources of the region since its purchase from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1870.

Natural Resources Transfer Acts, 1930

Under these 3 Acts - one each for Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - the federal government turned over to the Prairie provinces the jurisdiction that it had exercised over the crown lands and natural resources of the region since its purchase from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1870. The federal government had believed that it must control the land and resources to enable it to oversee the national goal of quickly populating the Prairie West, making it productive and integrating it into the national economy. This became a popular grievance in the West, where federal control appeared to relegate the provinces to second-class status in confederation, and to result in the subordination of regional concerns to national goals. The Natural Resources Transfer Acts thus were very popular in the West, for they at last recognized equality of jurisdiction for all Canadian provinces.