Expect to hear more guff this week about the supposed constitutional guarantee in Term 45 of the Terms of Union protecting the Brookfield Road agricultural research station.
The argument is pure horse manure, appropriately enough.
Term 45 provides as follows:
“Economic Survey
45. (1) Should the Government of the Province of Newfoundland institute an economic survey of the Province of Newfoundland with a view to determining what resources may profitably be developed and what new industries may be established or existing industries expanded, the Government of Canada will make available the services of its technical employees and agencies to assist in the work.
(2) As soon as may be practicable after the date of Union, the Government of Canada will make a special effort to collect and make available statistical and scientific data about the natural resources and economy of the Province of Newfoundland, in order to bring such information up to the standard attained for the other provinces of Canada. "
These paragraphs are pretty clear.
Prior to Confederation, Newfoundland had done very little to assess its own natural resource potential. Term 45 (1) commits the federal government to make available its technical staff to assist in the work. Since 1949, the federal government has both supported provincial government efforts and undertaken independent assessments of the type carried out anywhere in the country. The feds deployed the Dominion Geological Survey to accurately map the Churchill Falls area in support of that development in the 1960s.
Term 45 (2) was intended to commit the federal government to undertake data collection of a type simply not done by the Newfoundland government before 1949. Note the time frame: "as soon as may be practicable...". That certainly cannot be taken to mean an ongoing process.
It would take a monumental redrafting of history to stretch this section out to cover agricultural research of the type done on Brookfield Road. Perhaps using the constitutional guarantee argument is a sign the provincial government hasn't got another argument - that is, a convincing one - to bolster its case.
On the whole, the constitutional guarantee argument sounds as credible as the Great Aviation Giveaway myth.