Canada. Royal Commission on Maritime Claims : The Royal Commission on Maritime Claims was established under Order in Council P.C. 505, 7 April 1926, under Part I of the Inquiries Act (R.S.C., 1906, c.104) and on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The Commission was mandated to inquire into inquire into: (a) the alleged failure to fully use Canadian ports for Canadian trade; (b) the handicaps said to result from the schedules of rates chargeable for transporting goods on the railways uniting the Maritime provinces with the other provinces; (c) how the Canadian National Railway system, formerly called the Intercolonial Railway, was administered; (d) the effects of customs, immigration and other economic policies adopted by successive governments, of certain financial measures, and of the allotment of public lands to provinces; (e) the charge that at the time of Confederation the Maritime provinces were promised measures and policies that would ensure a future satisfactory economic position and that these pledges have been disregarded, so that the Maritime Provinces have not shared in equal measure the prosperity of the country; and (f) the claims set forth in memoranda that may be presented according to a Resolution of 12 March 1926 by the Government of Nova Scotia or in any memorandum on behalf of the governments of New Brunswick or Prince Edward Island and into representations presented to the federal government or to the commission on the conditions and claims of the people of the Maritime provinces, and (g) that an examination from a national standpoint of all the factors which peculiarly affect the economic position of the inhabitants of the Maritime provinces should be made and from the results of such inquiry specific recommendations made. The commissioners were Andrew Rae Duncan, Chairman, William Bernard Wallace and Cyrus Macmillan. The secretary was F. MacLure Sclanders.
"Maritime Rights" was the slogan of a regional protest movement that sprang up in the Maritime provinces after World War I. Its leaders appealed to Ottawa for lower freight and express rates, for a readjustment of the tariff structure, for the development and increased use of Maritime ports, for increased subsidies and for action on other problems facing the region. At that time, the Maritimes were experiencing a severe post-war recession. Economic recovery gradually occurred in the rest of Canada and they even enjoyed a period of relative prosperity before the arrival of the Great Depression. In the Maritimes, however, the recession during the post-war period was more prolonged and much more severe than in the rest of Canada.
Farmers, labourers, manufacturers and businessmen in the Maritimes voiced their discontent about the depressed conditions of the region through local farmers' organizations, trade unions, Acadian "national" conventions, educational institutions and boards of trade. Newspapers carried extensive reports about the general disatisfaction and Maritime provincial and federal politicians demanded that the federal government redress the grievances of the area.
In 1919 and 1920, the provincial governments of the three Maritime Provinces passed resolutions demanding action from the federal government on their financial claims. In 1919, the Maritime Board of Trade asked the federal government to reduce railway rates and make overall changes to transportation policy. Later the Boards of Trade of Halifax and Saint John expressed concern over the failure to use Maritime ports for Canadian trade. At that time some western grain, and other Canadian goods, were being shipped overseas through Portland, Maine; the ice-free ports of Halifax and Saint John were not being used enough, particularly during the winter months.
Prince Edward Island businessmen and politicians associated themselves with the general protest of the region. They received widespread support for their drive to secure more modern railway facilities and adequate ferry services to the mainland.
In the federal election of 1921, the Liberal Party took advantage of the Unionists' lack of response to Maritime complaints and captured 25 out of 31 seats in the region. Once in power, however, they did little to pacify the Maritimers and had to face repeated delegations of disgruntled businessmen, and farm and labour lobbyists from the area.
Frustrated by political inaction, the Maritime rights leaders vigorously campaigned to gain sympathy for their cause. For example, boards of trade and Maritime clubs produced propaganda pamphlets, and some newspaper reporters even conducted speaking tours to gain support in other parts of Canada. In February 1925 a Maritime rights delegation, consisting of about 300 persons, visited Ottawa and laid some of their more pressing needs before the government. Maritime leaders became even more insistent as unemployment grew, provincial debts increased and people moved away from the region.
The Liberal administration's indifference to the grievances of Maritimers proved costly in the federal election of 1925, as the Conservatives won 23 of 29 Maritime constituencies. Because of the election and other influences, the minority Liberal government promised, in the speech from the throne of 8 January 1926, "to inquire fully into the claims that the rights of the Maritime provinces in regard to the operation of the Intercolonial Railway have not been observed, and that in regard to transportation, immigration, and other economic factors these provinces have suffered prejudicially, in their position under Confederation." (See E.R. Forbes, Maritime Rights Movement, 1919-1927: A Study In Canadian Regionalism, (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1979); E.R. Forbes, Aspects of Maritime Regionalism, 1867-1927, Canadian Historical Association Booklet, No. 36, Ottawa: 1983, pp. 14-19; Canadian Annual Review, 1925-1926, pp. 395-399.)
Hearings of the commission were held in Halifax, Saint John, Charlottetown, Sydney, Amherst, Yarmouth and Montreal from 21 July to 31 August 1926. RG33-73 General Inventory
