Royal Commission on the Natural Resources of Alberta (Canada) : The Royal Commission on the Natural Resources of Alberta was established under Order in Council 1588, 19 July 1934, under Part I of the Inquiries Act (R.S.C., 1927, c.99) and on the recommendation of the Minister of Justice. The Commission was mandated to inquire into and report on whether any consideration - in addition to the sums provided in paragraph 20 of the agreement dated 14 December 1929, between the Government of Canada and the Government of the Province of Alberta, set out in the schedule to Chapter 3 of the Statutes of Canada (20-21 Geo V, c.3, 1930) - should be paid to the province so that the province may be placed in a position of equality with the other provinces of Confederation in the administration and control of its natural resources from its entrance into Confederation in 1905. The Commissioners were Andrew Knox Dysart, Chairman; Thomas Mitchell Tweedie and George C. McDonald. The Secretary was Oliver Master.
In 1870 the Government of Canada acquired Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory from Great Britain renamed them the North-West Territories. The federal government retained control of the natural resources (including all Crown lands, mines and minerals situated within the territories and all royalties) long after the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta were created from those territories. At first the Government of Canada used the resources of the region mainly to subsidize railway construction by granting western lands to private railway companies. Later, it fostered settlement in Western Canada by intensively promoting free homestead land grants.
In the early stages the Prairie provinces displayed no common front on the question of control of their natural resources. Gradually they became unanimous in their demand for the transfer of the unalienated resources to their control and for compensation for alleged losses resulting from federal control. The situation for each of the Prairie provinces, while similar in fundamentals, presented certain distinctive differences. Their claims were based upon constitutional rights enjoyed by the original provinces of Canada, which were given control over their natural resources in 1867.
The Province of Alberta received, from its creation in 1905, an annual cash subsidy from the Government of Canada in compensation for lands which the federal government proposed to use for national purposes. In successive provincial general elections, the voters of Alberta elected the political party that had supported the resources arrangement. As early as 1910, the Alberta Legislature desired some modification of the arrangement made in 1905. In 1911 a federal general election resulted in a new ministry under Prime Minister Borden, who had previously favoured the transfer of natural resources to the Prairie provinces. About that time, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, at the session of 1911-1912, passed a resolution urging that all natural resources within the boundaries of the Province be handed over to provincial control. Similar resolutions were passed in subsequent years to secure the transfer. A transfer agreement was reached with Government of Canada in 1926 but it failed to become effective.
Finally a conference on 14 December 1929, between the Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta, resulted in the 1930 resources agreement, which was ratified by an act of Parliament (20-21 Geo. V, c.3, 1930). This agreement furnished the basis for an imperial statute (20-21 Geo V, c.26, 1930) which resulted in the transfer of the unalienated natural resources to the province on 1 October 1930. Although the terms of the agreement provided for the appointment of a royal commission to work out arrangements, its appointment was delayed for some years. This delay was caused by Saskatchewan's appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, and later to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which settled an issue that affected the Province of Alberta in a similar way. The claim of Saskatchewan for compensation for resources alienated before it became a province in 1905 was rejected. Thus the Province of Alberta, which was created at the same time as Saskatchewan, was not entitled to compensation for the period before it became a Province. In making its report, the federal royal commission, which was appointed on 19 July 1934, dealt with resource issues after 1905. (See Order in Council P.C. 2722, 29 December 1933, and Report of the Royal Commission on the Transfer of the Natural Resources of Alberta, Ottawa, King's Printer, 1935, pp. 7-15.)
Hearings of the commission were held in Ottawa on 14 August and from 2 October to 11 December 1934. There were more than 250 exhibits filed with the commission. RG33-51 General Inventory
