BAIER, Gerald; GROARKE, Paul <br/><br/>
Arbitrating a fiction :  canadian federalism and the Nova Scotia/Newfoundland and Labrador boundary dispute 

 - Toronto :  IPAC,  Fall 2003 
<br/><br/> The off-shore area between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador and the natural resources that it holds have recently been the subject of dispute between the two provinces. Constitutionally, jurisdiction for off-shore resources belongs to the federal government. Control over development and revenues has been shared with the provinces through joint management accords. In order to deal with the dispute over where the offshore boundary between the two provinces lies, the accords provide for arbitration by a tribunal reporting to the federal minister of natural resources. That tribunal has now completed its work. This article analyses the tribunal, its terms of reference, and its findings, and concludes that the tribunal process was flawed. There are reasons to doubt the appropriateness of its role, the method by which it made its decision, and the legality of its findings. Ultimately, the tribunal’s process perpetuates the myth that what is being discussed are genuine boundaries between the provinces. The boundary is, in that regard, a fiction. In fact, the process is simply apportioning federal resources between two provinces. The tribunal cloaks a political decision in legal garb. The minister of natural resources is able to avoid political responsibility for making a decision by relying on a pseudo-judicial body for technical recommendations. As in many of the other practices that have come to dominate intergovernmental relations in Canada, the accountability governments is lost in the process