March 22, 1905 (10th Parliament, 1st Session)

Rt. Hon. Sir WILFRID LAURIER (Prime Minister) moved :

That the House do to-morrow go into Committee of the Whole to consider the following proposed resolutions :
1. Resolved, that the following amounts shall be allowed as an annual subsidy to the province of Saskatchewan and shall be paid by the government of Canada, by half-yearly instalments in advance, to the said province, that is to say :-
(a) for the support of the government and legislature, fifty thousand dollars ;
(b) on an estimated population of two hundred and fifty thousand, at eighty cents per head, two hundred thousand dollars, subject to be increased as hereinafter mentioned, that is to say :-a census of the said province shall be taken in every fifth year reckoning from the general census of one thousand nine hundred and one, and an approximate estimate of the population shall be made at equal intervals of time between each quinquennial and decennial census ; and whenever the population, by any such census or estimate, exceeds two hundred and fifty thousand, which shall be the minimum on which the said allowance shall be calculated, the amount of the said allowance shall be increased accordingly, and so on until the population has reached eight hundred thousand souls.
2. Resolved, that inasmuch as the said province is not in debt, it shall be entitled to be paid and to receive from the government of Canada, by half-yearly payments in advance, interest at the rate of five per cent per annum on the sum of eight million one hundred and seven thousand five hundred dollars.
3. Resolved, that inasmuch as the public lands in the said province are to remain the property of Canada, there shall be paid by Canada to the said province annually by way of compensation therefor a sum based upon the estimated value of such lands, namely, $37,500,000, the said lands being assumed to be of an area of 25,000,000 acres and to be of the value of $1.60 per acre, and upon the population of the said province, as from time to time ascertained by the quinquennial census thereof, such sum to be arrived at as follows :-
The population of the said province being assumed to be at present 250,000, the sum payable until such population reaches 400,000 is to be one per cent on such estimated value, or $375,000 ;
Thereafter, until such population reaches 800,000, the sum payable is to be one and one-half per cent on such estimated value, or $562,500 ;
Tlereafter, until such population reaches 1,200,000, the sum payable is to be two per cent on such estimated value, or $750,000 ;
And thereafter such payment is to be three per cent on such estimated value, or $1,125,000.
4. Resolved, that as additional compensation for such lands there shall be paid by Canada

to the said province annually for five years to provide for the construction of necessary public buildings, one-quarter of one per cent on such estimated value, or $93,750.
He said : I have to inform the House that His Excellency has approved of these resolutions, and consents to their submission to the House.