Canada and the British immigrantWeaver, Emily P. (Emily Poynton)
History
Canada and the British immigrant
Weaver, Emily P. (Emily Poynton)
Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- Economic conditions
The matters put under the control of the provinces are:—The amendment
of the provincial constitutions (except as to the lieutenant-governor);
direct taxation and borrowing of money on the provincial credit for
provincial purposes; provincial officials; management and sale of
provincial public lands and forests; regulation of asylums, hospitals,
charities, reformatories and jails; municipal institutions; shop, tavern
and other licences; solemnization of marriage; property and civil
rights; constitution and maintenance of provincial courts of civil and
criminal jurisdiction; the appointment of magistrates and justices of
the peace; education, with certain exceptions as to the separate schools
of religious minorities; and local works and matters of a merely private
nature in a province.
With regard to immigration and agriculture, both Dominion and provincial
parliaments may legislate, but in case of conflicting legislation the
Dominion Act overrules the provincial. The Governor-in-Council of the
Dominion may disallow an Act of a provincial parliament, within one year
of its passing, and the Imperial government in like manner may disallow
an Act passed by the Dominion parliament within two years after its
receipt by the Secretary of State for the Colonies; but the power of
disallowance is used very rarely. If an Act passed by the Dominion or a
provincial parliament exceeds, as sometimes happens, the powers given
under the British North America Act, the courts may declare it _ultra
vires_—that is, “beyond the powers” of the legislature which enacted
it. The provinces may neither organize nor maintain a provincial
military force; and here again the constitution of Canada differs from
that of the United States, under which each State may have a military
force.
The revenue of the Dominion is obtained from taxation (largely in the
form of duties on imported goods), “from receipts from the sales of the
crown lands, from the post office, from railways, canals and other
sources.” Upon their entrance into confederation each of the provinces
resigned its right to levy indirect taxes; and in place of this each
province receives a subsidy from the Dominion.
The Dominion at the time of Confederation took over the public debts of
the several provinces; and further debts have been incurred in the
building of canals, railways, and other public works. To set against
these the Dominion possesses immensely valuable assets in her millions
of acres of ungranted lands and in her state-owned railways, canals, and
public buildings for various purposes.
Since Confederation the provinces have also incurred public debts,
largely in constructing works to improve communication, and in the
erection of public buildings.
The capital of the Dominion is the city of Ottawa, beautifully situated
on the right bank, or Ontario side, of the Ottawa river, which forms a
considerable part of the boundary between the provinces of Quebec and
Ontario.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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