The Role of Canada’s Provinces in Canadian Foreign Policy: Multi-level Governance in the Making

Abstract

In Canada, the Constitution Act, 1867 does not formally assign jurisdiction over foreign affairs to the federal government and there is no section of the constitution that specifies who may enter into international treaties. Since 1945, and even before for certain issues, international negotiations, particularly in the areas of human rights, education, public health, labour, trade, the environment and climate change, have increasingly affected the provinces’ areas of jurisdiction. With these transformations, it becomes difficult for provinces to accept the federal government’s claim to a monopoly on foreign affairs, as this would mean that the Canadian government would be doing indirectly what it cannot do directly. In response to this phenomenon, many provinces have been seeking for over 60 years now to influence the federal government’s international negotiations of agreements that affect them. International negotiations in Canada have thus made the creation of multi-level governance mechanisms between the federal government and the Canadian provinces in this area inevitable. Little is known about the fact that while all attempts at constitutional reform in this area have failed, intergovernmental agreements have been reached in several areas (Human Rights, Hague Conferences on Private International Law, Education, UNESCO). In other areas, such as trade negotiations and climate change, the provinces are often involved in the negotiations even though federal arbitrariness remains an important issue and the question of the place of the provinces in international negotiations remains unresolved.