CANADIAN PROVINCES

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 January 1941, Page 8

CANADIAN PROVINCES

READJUSTMENT OPPOSED. [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] OTTAWA, January 15. Hope of agreement on the Sirois report has been abandoned because of opposition from three provinces, presumably Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. The Prime Minister (Mr. Mackenzie King) said there was no point in establishing committees because of the opposition. The report, which was that of a Royal Commission under the chairmanship of Dr. Joseph Sirois, reexamined the basis of relations between the provinces and the Federal Government. It recommended that the Federal Government should assume provincial debts, finance unemployment relief, and hold exclusive rights to tax corporation incomes and collect succession duties. The provinces would lose their national subsidies to receive adjustment grants, according to their needs. The report also favoured a merger, first of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, and, second, of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. OTTAWA, January 16. The Dominion Provincial conference, after two days’ strife, adjourned after deciding it was not able to agree on any points which it had been convened to discuss. PETROL RATIONING. OTTAWA, January 15. The Minister for Finance (Mr. J. L. Ilsley) has stated that rationing of petrol throughout Canada is imminent.