The Saskatchewan Act is an Act of the Canadian Parliament establishing the new province of Saskatchewan, effective September 1, 1905. Its long title is An Act to establish and provide for the government of the Province of Saskatchewan. The Act was published in chapter 42, pages 201-215 of the Statutes of Canada 1905. The Act received royal assent on July 20, 1905.
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As the population of the North-West Territories increased, its government evolved from an appointed lieutenant governor in 1876, to responsible government in 1897, to near full provincial powers, with the exception of direct taxation by 1901. However, with the federal government failing to cover the full expenses of the Territories, Premier Frederick Haultain requested provincial status for a large swathe of the Territories.
The initial proposal by the Conservative Haultain to Liberal Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier in 1900 was seconded by Liberal James Ross, and was taken under consideration by Clifford Sifton, Minister of the Interior. Haultain desired that the entire area between Manitoba and British Columbia be incorporated as a a single province, due to the region's shared history and economy. Others supported splitting the area into two or more separate provinces based on the existing provisional districts, for fear a single province would be unwieldy, and that it might come to dominate federal politics. The Laurier government postponed any decision until after the 1904 election, during which Haultain actively campaigned for the Conservatives. The Conservatives lost to Laurier's Liberals, and following the election the Liberals decided to create two provinces, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Two clauses in the Acts as they were passed caused significant controversy: Article 17, which explicitly provided for continuance of pre-existing separate Catholic and French schools, with no discrimination against them, and Article 21, which reserved management of Crown lands and natural resources to the Federal Government. Article 17 was controversial because English Canadians felt that immigrants should be assimilated to the British culture and language, while French Canadians saw any removal of existing protections as an attack on the French culture. Clifford Sifton resigned rather than support this measure. The article was included in the Act despite the protests and resignation, however provision of French instruction was never supported by the provincial government, and was effectively eliminated by 1931 (though it has since been partially restored). Article 21 allowed Federal government retain control over the Provincial land and resources, and while the Act provided for monetary transfers to compensate for the lack of resource revenue, this policy hindered the economic growth of the new Provinces and became one of the original sources of western alienation. Haultain formed Canada's first protest party, the Provincial Rights Party, based around this issue. Control over resources was returned to the Provinces in the British North America Act, 1930, and this issue was again clarified in the Constitution Act, 1982.
The act consists of the following sections (paraphrased):
1 First general election was held on December 13, 1905.
2 The Alberta Act was passed at the same time.
The original 25 electoral divisions were defined in a schedule following the main body of the act. These 25 divisions were: