Recent Constitutional Developments in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories

Abstract

T HE constitutional history of the territorial regions of Canada is the history of a series of institutional adjustments forced by successive crises on a distant, hesitant federal government. At the outset, the troubles at Red River compelled the Government to adopt a course of action for which it had no prearranged policy and no precedent.' It is not surprising, perhaps, that these events should have outrun the Government's intentions, coming as they did immediately on the heels of Confederation, with no telegraphic communications between east and west and at a time when virtually nothing was known in the east about local conditions on the prairies. In retrospect, it is surprising, however, that expediency and lack of foresight, with one or two important exceptions, should have remained entrenched features of territorial policy until the middle years of the twentieth century,2 although, to some extent, this is a view emanating from the context of our own times. The vast complexity of contemporary society and the complete transformation in the concept of the role of the state during the past thirty years make the inadequacy of government in an earlier day seem negative and antediluvian. Thus the emergence of a comprehensive welfare state has not been without its effect on the constitutional evolution of the territories. People living in the territories are accustomed to a wider range of activity on the part of the federal government, and in turn expect more of it, if only because it is responsible for a number of functions performed elsewhere by the provincial governments; but this difference in public attitude does not explain the radical change which has taken place in the response of the federal government to the need for consideration of the principles underlying the future constitutional development of the territories. There is now a deliberate attempt to round out the framework of Confederation, and while it is essential that this be done with due regard for political and economic reality, the ultimate goals of responsible government and provincial status are relatively well defined.3 Any uncertainty that remains is no longer attributable to a lack of objectives; it is a matter of arriving at the forms of government most consistent with progressive stages of financial capability and political sophistication.