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Problems of Public Finance in the Prairie Provinces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

W. J. Waines
W. J. Waines*
Affiliation:
The University of Manitoba
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Extract

“All economic problems which are concerned with overhead costs, whether those of the individual farm enterprise or those of communities or governmental bodies, are rendered active or quiescent by the fluctuations of net agricultural income.” Herein, lies the fundamental economic problem of the West. It is the purpose of this paper to examine provincial and municipal finance in the Prairie Provinces in the light of this fact, in an attempt to reveal some of the more important problems and possible lines of attack on them. The area designated as the Prairie Provinces, however, is not a unit with uniform geographic and economic characteristics. Therefore, the factors of diversity, as well as those of variability, constitute the background against which the problems of government finance should be examined. Since these factors are vital to a consideration of the problems, there must be some preliminary account of them.

The prairie economy is “exposed” to the fluctuations characteristic of a variable climate, of extreme specialization, and of dependence upon prices determined in world markets. The contrast between an almost exclusively agricultural and an agricultural-industrial region, sheltered by a kindly federal government, is most marked. The climatic and economic instability of the West has been thoroughly studied by Professor Mackintosh in two volumes in the series “Canadian Frontiers of Settlement”. The instability reflected in variable community income is highly significant, because it is the net income “which must carry the fixed charges of both the individual enterprise and the agricultural community at large”.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , August 1937 , pp. 355 - 369
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1937

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References

1 Mackintosh, W. A., Economic Problems of the Prairie Provinces (Toronto, 1935), p. 32.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., p. 31.

3 Sanford Evans Statistical Service, Winnipeg, Sales and Collection Reports, April, 1935, and succeeding monthly reports.

4 Mackintosh, , Economic Problems of the Prairie Provinces, pp. 25–8.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., p. 30.

6 Britnell, G. E., “Saskatchewan, 1930-1935” (Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, vol. II, 05, 1936, pp. 150–1).Google Scholar

7 Mackintosh, Economic Problems of the Prairie Provinces, chap, i, passim.

8 Innis, H. A., Problems of Staple Production in Canada (Toronto, 1933), pp. 109–10.Google Scholar

9 J. A. Maxwell, “The Adjustment of Federal-Provincial Financial Relations” ( Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, vol, II, 08, 1936, p. 374).Google Scholar For an elaboration of Professor Maxwell's views see his recently published book, Federal Subsidies to the Provincial Governments in Canada (Cambridge, Mass., 1937).Google Scholar

10 Percentage Increase in Total and Per Capita Expenditures of All Provinces and the Prairie Provinces Between 1919 and 1929

11 Percentage Increase in Total and Per Capita Bonded Indebtedness of All Provinces and the Prairie Provinces Between 1919 and 1929

12 Mackintosh, Economic Problems of the Prairie Provinces, chap, iii, passim; Bank of Canada, Reports on the Financial Position of the Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta (Ottawa, 1937).Google Scholar

13 Innis, , Problems of Staple Production in Canada (Toronto, 1933), p. 67.Google Scholar

14 In 1933 the provincial telephone investment in Manitoba was $22.9 million, in Alberta $27.4 million, and in Saskatchewan $13.9 million, with an additional $17.5 million of local telephone debentures ( Britnell, G. E., “Public Ownership of Telephones in the Prairie Provinces”, M.A. Thesis, University of Toronto, 1934).Google Scholar

15 For the expenditures of various governmental authorities in connection with relief in the three provinces see Bank of Canada, Reports on the Financial Position of the Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

16

17 Report of the Alberta Taxation Inquiry Board (Edmonton, 1935), p. 119.Google Scholar

18 Mackintosh, , Economic Problems of the Prairie Provinces, p. 82.Google Scholar

19 Information supplied by the deputy municipal commissioner of the province of Manitoba.

20 City of Winnipeg, , Report of Commission on Assessment, Taxation, etc. (Winnipeg, 1934), p. 10.Google Scholar

21 See Haig, R. M., Taxation in the Urban Municipalities of Saskatchewan (Regina, 1917)Google Scholar; Clark, A. B., “Recent Tax Developments in Western Canada” (Proceedings of the National Tax Association, vol. XIII)Google Scholar; Clark, A. B., An Outline of Provincial and Municipal Taxation in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan (Winnipeg, 1920).Google Scholar

22 Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Provincial and Municipal Taxation to the Government of the Province of Saskatchewan, 1936 (Regina, 1936), chap. iii.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., p. 64.

24 Mackintosh, W. A., “Some Aspects of a Pioneer Economy” (Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, vol. II, 11, 1936, pp. 457–63).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 For some account of taxation in retrograde, pioneer, and established communities, see Mackintosh, Economic Problems of the Prairie Provinces, chap. ix.

26 Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Agriculture, Climate and Population of the Prairie Provinces of Canada (Ottawa, 1931), p. 78.Google Scholar

27 Mackintosh, , Economic Problems of the Prairie Provinces, appendix B, p. 294.Google Scholar

28 A Report on the Rehabilitation of the Dry Areas of Alberta and Crop Insurance, (Edmonton, 1936), p. 13.Google Scholar (Referred to hereafter as Drought Report.)

29 Mackintosh, , Economic Problems of the Prairie Provinces, p. 292 Google Scholar; Drought Report, pp. 41-4.

30 Mackintosh, , Economic Problems of the Prairie Provinces, p. 291.Google Scholar

31 Drought Report, p. 39.

32 Brigden, J. B., “Grants to States” (Economic Record, 12, 1934, p. 240).Google Scholar

33 Australia, Commonwealth Grants Commission, Third Report (1936), p. 9.Google Scholar

34 See MacGregor, D. C., “Federal-Provincial Financial Relations in Canada” (Economic Journal, 03, 1936, pp. 171–8).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Maxwell, , “Federal-Provincial Financial Relations”, p. 382.Google Scholar

36 Ibid., p. 387.

37 Finer, Herman, English Local Government (London, 1933), pp. 427, 428.Google Scholar

38 Bladen, V. W., “The Economics of Federalism” (Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, vol. I, 08, 1935, pp. 348–51).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39 Ibid., p. 350.

40 See Province of Nova Scotia: A Submission on Dominion-Provincial Relations and the Fiscal Disabilities of Nova Scotia within the Canadian Federation; MacGregor, D. C., “The Provincial Incidence of the Canadian Tariff” (Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, vol. I, 08, 1935, pp. 381–95).Google Scholar