Quebec-Ontario Relations: A Shared Destiny?

1. A Comparative Lookat Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations

1. A ComPARATIvE Look AT fEDERALIsm AnD InTERgovERnmEnTAL RELATIons germany, Australia, Belgium, the united states, and Canada fRAnçoIs RoChER and mARIE-ChRIsTInE gILBERT To understand intergovernmental relations, we must first seek to comprehend the mechanisms by which the different levels of government interact within a federation . It is thus the federation ’s organizational principles that are of interest . Such principles are set against a historical background made up of institutional choices, power relationships, the various actors involved, and, more globally, the different visions of what objectives the political system should achieve . In comparing federations from an organizational standpoint, federalism should be seen as a set of normative principles (autonomy, nonsubordination, interdependence, cooperation, and solidarity) based on ideas and values (Vile 1977: 13–14; Rocher 2006) . The latter dimension, although important for grasping the nature of federations, will occupy a secondary place in our analysis . The Latin root of the word federation is feodus, which means an alliance or treaty by which two or more political groups form a single political entity (De Witte 2000: 435) . By its classical definition , any federal system involves at least two levels of government— a central government and a number of regional governments—each coordinated and independent within its own sphere of jurisdiction (Wheare 1963: 10) . Thus, members of a federation possess their own legal system and powers they can exercise without interference 12 Quebec–ontario Relations –A shared Destiny? from the central government, at least theoretically . That being said, the autonomy and multiplicity of powers of both the federated entities and the central government require them to establish information exchange mechanisms and sometimes joint-action and cooperation mechanisms in order to achieve common objectives, which are defined more or less jointly, depending on the circumstances . What makes a federation distinct as a type of political organization is that it also requires federated entities to interact . Thus autonomy goes hand in hand with interdependence . Since the sharing of powers between the national government and the federated entities is not always explicitly elaborated in the constitution, debates and conflicts regarding the interpretation of these powers are inevitable . The existence of competing powers, the processes of centralization and deconcentration (and more rarely decentralization) of federal powers, and the interpretation of these powers require governments to be in regular contact . “Federal” societies use a myriad of cooperation mechanisms that play a role in how the federation operates . In this chapter, we will discuss the various cooperation mechanisms that have developed in the German, Australian, Belgian, American, and Canadian federations .1 By cooperation, we mean relations between the collective entities, i .e ., between the federal government and the federated entities and among the various federated entities themselves (Wheare 1963: 112) . Rather than discussing how powers are shared (although this aspect is important), we will look at how the various levels of government come into contact and interact with each other . We will first identify the key concepts for understanding intergovernmental relations . We will then look at the type of intergovernmental relations that have developed in the various federations we have selected, highlight the similarities and differences between the various cases, and identify the factors that explain them . 1. fEDERALIsm AnD InTERgovERnmEnTALIsm: fRom PRInCIPLEs To InsTITuTIons To speak of federalism and intergovernmentalism in the same breath is redundant, as the first term implies the second . The fact that a federated whole is made up of various levels of government makes intergovernmental relations inevitable . Discussions of this phenomenon 1 . We chose these five federations because they are quite stable and similar, yet they differ in how the mechanisms governing their intergovernmental relations have developed . See Bolleyer and Bytzek (2009: 375) . 1 . A Comparative Look at federalism and Intergovernmental Relations 13 in the literature regularly refer to the notion of cooperation, a form of dialogue among federated entities .2 The expression generally used to refer to cooperation between federated entities is “intergovernmental relations,” although “interprovincialism” is widely used in Canada (Leach 1976; Bergeron 1980; Banting 1998; Prince 2001; Pelletier 2008) . Intergovernmental relations are most commonly described in light of the mechanisms that link the various governments making up a federation (Opeskin 2001: 137) . They are also presented according to the type of interactions that characterize the relationship, whether between the members of a federation and the central government (vertical relations) or among the federation’s infranational components (horizontal relations) (Cameron 2001: 131) . According to Krane and Wright, intergovernmental relations...