Division of power in Canada

Power division among the executive which comprises of the prime minister, premiers and their cabinets was divided similarly as the legislative power (Emmers and Ralf 44). On the other hand, power was also divided in the judicial system among the Canadian courts but all fall under the federal government. According to section 91 of the constitution act, 1867, it gives power to the legit government to exercise its duty in keeping peace, order and good governance in matters that pertains the interests of civilians without discrimination or segregation. The powers were put across in order to eradicate impunity in governance and eradicate dictatorship in Canada. The divisions of power in the federal and provisional governments were balanced in such a way they have to work in unison in order to meet the expected performance in governance.

The provinces have their own policies on matters concerning tax and revenue allocation and collection (Emmers and Ralf 45). Taxation The federal government has the mandate and authority to raise revenue through customs duty and on the other side provisional government raises its revenue through direct tax through licensing and royalties from public ownership assets. This has led to the emergence of conflicts in power distribution and has made both the houses to amend bills that are not biased on the two conflicting governments and agreements reached (Gilley and Bruce 260). Each level of the government is restricted to certain measures, but they assume some responsibilities are not assigned to them. This has been noted when they converted some of the indirect taxes such as sales tax and purchase tax to direct tax.

The interpretation of the mandate was later realized that the constitution of Canada was to be carried out by the federal government. For instance, parliament could not abolish the senate because it represents the provinces and is not a federal concern but on the other hand, it exclusively had the power to make laws that amend the constitution in relation to the executive government or the Senate and the House of Commons. In the recent ruling, the Canadian Supreme Court clarified on specific amendments to the makeup of Senate. These included the provision that Senate appointments would need the approval of federal government and the seven provinces with at least half of the population of Canada. This meant in the case of disbanding the Senate, the matter had to be approved by 10 provinces and the federal government.

The provincial governments were granted the power to tax natural resources indirectly and the federal government was mandated to be responsible and tax the seacoast fisheries and its processes. Due to the high decline of fish stock on the Atlantic and Pacific waters in the past decades has erupted heat on the powers that were mandated by the federal government and the provincial government (Trimble and Jane). Some provincial government like British Colombia and Newfoundland and Labrador want to be given the powers and the mandate to control the water bodies as part of their local economies. This has spurred eruption of conflicts over the allocation of natural resource control among the local residents with the provincial and federal governments against the Aboriginal nations (Farney ).

This has led to the emergence of judicial interventions on who should be given the power to control the sea bodies and the mode to be used to divide the powers in both governments concerning the public interests that need to be looked upon. Though the power is balanced according to the task given, the governments are not satisfied with the powers. Canada has held dozens of conferences of constitutional matters, but these have not borne much fruit. There have been very limited developments in creating laws that define the roles of the federal and the provisional government. The powers are currently balanced but due to political affiliations and interests, both governments compete for supremacy hence the Supreme Court has the power to mandate on what they are supposed to do (Jackson and Doreen).