Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to tell Canadians today that federal Justice Minister David Lametti was not speaking on behalf of the federal government when he said he would look at rescinding the 1930 Natural Resources Transfer Agreements with the Prairie provinces and strip away their constitutional authority and control over natural resources.
These agreements recognized the Prairie provinces with the same rights over resources that all other provinces already had. Those rights have been fundamental to the people and the economic autonomy of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta for nearly 100 years.
The federal government cannot unilaterally change the Constitution. It should not even be considering stripping resource rights away from the three Prairie provinces.
The prime minister needs to immediately retract these dangerous and divisive comments by his justice minister.
