Senator Simons: I was blaming myself for not knowing about this lawsuit against Alberta. Just today, I have gone through the archives of the Calgary Herald and the Edmonton Journal, and I can find no story that was done by either of Alberta’s leading newspapers about CPR’s suit against Alberta. We have checked with the library at the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, and they have no record of this.

What do you say to the people of Alberta who have just found out that CPR sued us for this much money back when Ed Stelmach was premier?

Hon. Paula Simons: Senator Tannas, I, like you, am from Alberta. And I, like you, am still learning about this situation. I met with CP, who told me that their lawsuit against Alberta would be for what is now about $95 million in taxes that they feel they have paid unfairly.

I’m just wondering, as Albertans, do we have an obligation as Alberta senators to do more investigation about what the implications are of this proposed constitutional amendment for the people and the taxpayers of Alberta?

Senator Tannas: I agree. That is an interesting twist to all of this; that the initial lawsuit that CP put forward to try and assert what they believed were their rights with respect to federal taxes, they lost. Part of that decision where they lost has given rise to the fact that that court, as I see it, provided a lot of light for CP to then go to the next step to assert their rights in the provinces, and in particular in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba.

The federal government seems to have their fingerprints in different spots all over this, including this famous 1966 agreement that was done on behalf of the provinces. Frankly, the best result, rather than asking legislatures to yank, retroactively, legal contracts out from under parties, would be for the federal government to work toward solving this problem in a way that didn’t involve the courts. I guess they’ve had 100 years or so to do that and haven’t done it. It is an interesting element to this.

Senator Simons, me and others, we did a bit of research — and I know you’ve done a lot of research — but in the bit of research I did, I felt there was a story that needed to be clear in all of our minds when we do this, especially because I’m sure we’re going to be asked twice more to do the same thing.