OTTAWA (Staff) – Alberta’s efforts to reinvent government are helping lead Canada in the direction Quebec has wanted to go for years, says Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest.
He cited Alberta’s efforts to limit the role of government and to push Ottawa out of areas of jurisdiction that are provincial under the constitution.
“A lot of the changes happening in Alberta relate to the role of government,” Charest said. “There is an effort to assert provincial jurisdiction and to end duplication and overlap between the levels of government.”
He said fiscal pressures and the assertion of provincial rights are both working to limit the role of the federal government.
“This is something that Quebec has been supporting for years,” he said. “Under the imperative of fiscal pressure, Canada is changing.”
