Federal-provincial relations (Canada)

Taxonomy

Code

Scope note(s)

Source note(s)

  • GR and MS subject headings

Display note(s)

Hierarchical terms

Federal-provincial relations (Canada)

Equivalent terms

Federal-provincial relations (Canada)

Associated terms

Federal-provincial relations (Canada)

10 Archival description results for Federal-provincial relations (Canada)

10 results directly related Exclude narrower terms

Colonial Office "secret" supplementary correspondence

This series contains extracts from volumes in C.O. 537 series [supplementary correspondence]. The records consist mainly of despatches to and from the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Governor-General of Canada and senior British military officers. The majority of the records were originally classified as "Secret" or "Confidential." Records pertain to all parts of Canada, but include substantial British Columbia-related material. San Juan Island dispute, B.C.'s entry into Confederation, trans-Pacific steamship services, coastal defence, and the Bering Sea sealing negotiations are but some of the issues documented in this series.

Great Britain. Colonial Office

Correspondence

  • GR-1306
  • Series
  • 1881

This series contains correspondence between Amor De Cosmos, as Special Agent to London, and others, respecting the Petition of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, to the Queen, on the subject of the Canadian Pacific Railway from March 22nd 1881 to August 31st 1881. The series includes a printed copy of B.C. legislature's petition to the Queen, along with a manuscript copy of the Canadian Pacific Railway memorandum on "Vancouver Island Railway," December 1881. De Cosmos' map showing CPR terminus at Port Moody, alienated railway land on Vancouver Island, proposed ferry routes, etc. were transferred to PABC Library & Maps Division under accession M889117.

British Columbia. Lieutenant Governor

Lieutenant Governor's records

  • GR-0443
  • Series
  • 1871-1936

This series consists of papers of the Lieutenant-Governors of British Columbia. Includes transcripts of telegrams between Victoria and Ottawa, letterbook copies of official despatches outward (1871-1881), despatches inward from Governor General, Secretary of State, and Senior Naval Officer, Esquimalt (1871-1918), along with official correspondence from British Columbia government ministries and departments (1874-1919). Also includes miscellaneous, general, and semi- official correspondence inward, addresses, petitions, and memorials, (1872-1936). Records have been organized into five sub-series:

Letterbook copies of official correspondence outward (1896-1919) are on microfilm. Volume 5 (Feb - Dec 1902) and Volume 17 (1915) were missing at the time of filming. Date ranges correspond to the microfilm box labels.

Correspondence Inward: Despatches from the Canadian Government Secretary of State for the Provinces. Official correspondence from the Dominion of Canada to the Province of British Columbia. Files include minutes and reports of Privy Council, memoranda from the Colonial Secretary (London), and other government correspondence relating to British Columbia.

Miscellaneous correspondence inward. Variously entitled "All & Sundry", and "Tout le Monde", files include communications from Colonial Secretary (London) federal and provincial government officials, British consulates and embassies, and Lieutenant Governors of other provinces. Correspondence also includes petitions, memorials, and addresses, letters from private persons and circulars.

General Correspondence inward (I): Unlike volumes 58-65 above, general correspondence files include official despatches from Secretary of State, Ottawa, with official communications from BC government ministries and departments. Files include replies to correspondents.

General Correspondence (II) - Subject Files

British Columbia. Lieutenant Governor

Pattullo papers

Private and official correspondence, speeches, accounts, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, reports, memoranda and miscellaneous items. The papers consist of 84 document boxes [volumes 1-84] of private and official correspondence, inward and outward, speeches, accounts, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, reports, memoranda and miscellaneous items. Among the papers is correspondence inward and outward of John Oliver and John Duncan MacLean relating to Liberal party affairs. The Pattullo papers divide into two series. Series I [vol. 1-61] contain papers related to private and public activities of Pattullo from 1892-1956, but contains only five volumes [54-58] of papers related to the years 1933-1941 when Pattullo was Premier of British Columbia. Pattullo's filing system, based on subject categories, has been maintained. Papers within each file are arranged in chronological order. A few files contain papers for more than one year. For instance, a file relating to one insurance policy might cover the years 1929-1933. All such files have been placed in the volume for the earliest year. A list of the dates, form and subject of each file is given in the finding aid below. Series II [vol. 62-84] contains papers related to Pattullo's tenure as Premier. Material within files is in chronological order. Most of letter analysis is given unless the entire file relates to one subject. In Series II it is not possible, as it is with Series I, conveniently to begin and progress through the papers year by year because the whole body of papers 1933-1941 is filed exclusively on a subject basis, hence more: than one year's correspondence may be in any one file. The filing system is that devised by the Premier's Office. Files are: classified as C" - Confidential [vols. 62-65], "D" - departmental [vols. 66-67], "F" - federal [vols. 68-71] and "G" - general [vols. 72-73]. Volumes 74-76 contain alphabetical files. Volumes 77-84 contain newspaper clippings related to the years 1933-1941. Most of the pamphlets from the Pattullo papers have been removed and catalogued in the British Columbia Archives Library. Many of the remaining pamphlets are duplicates. Restriction: Researchers are requested to use the microfilm for conservation reasons. [reels A-01796-A01811, A01959-A01963]. Files containing oversize material were filmed at a later date and are on reels A01959-A01963. The text of a radio speech delivered on 19 Feb 1941 in Prince Rupert was presented by UBC Library in 2008 (box 65, file 14).

Pattullo, Thomas Dufferin, 1873-1956

Premiers' papers

  • GR-1222
  • Series
  • 1917-1952

This series contains official reports and correspondence accumulated during the administrations of Premiers Tolmie, Pattullo, Hart, and Johnson. It includes Departmental, General, and Federal files, plus separate series of documents on Pacific Great Eastern Railway (1917-1945). It also includes applications for employment, petitions, press releases, speeches, and vouchers.

The records which comprise this unit were stored for many years in a maintenance shop adjacent to the Parliament Buildings. Storage conditions were less than ideal and in 1982 arrangements were made with the Premier's Office' to transfer the records to the Provincial Archives. It was a signal event, for the records provide documentation on virtually all facets of provincial life over a thirty-five year period. Additionally, the documents which make up GR-1222 provide a valuable record of the administrations of Premiers Tolmie (1928-1933), Pattullo (1933-1941), Hart (1941-1947) and Johnson (1947-1952). The records fall into three main categories or series, namely Departmental files, Federal files, and General files.

British Columbia. Premier

Premier's records

  • GR-1414
  • Series
  • 1953-1972

This series contains official correspondence, reports, briefs to cabinet, articles and messages, etc. accumulated during W.A.C. Bennett's tenure as premier. It includes files on Dominion-provincial relations, civil defence, centennial celebrations, railways and major business corporations. Also includes copies of congratulatory letters sent to senior citizens by Bennett's successor, Premier David Barrett. Photographs transferred to Visual Records Division; maps, plans, and printed material transferred to Library and Maps Section. GR-1414 consists of a large number of records created and accumulated during the tenure of Premier William Andrew Cecil (W.A.C.) Bennett [1952-1972]. The records originally comprised the Central Registry of the Premier's Office. Included are letters from private individuals and business corporations, inter-departmental memoranda, copies of the premier's articles and messages, briefs to cabinet and other reports submitted for the premier's consideration. This unit also includes documents pertaining to Dominion-Provincial relations, as well as correspondence from federal politicians and foreign diplomats. The records, which comprise this unit, were transferred to the Provincial Archives from the Premier's Office in November 1982. Ten years earlier-following the defeat of Mr. Bennett's Social Credit government-the records had been consigned to a vault in the basement of the Parliament Buildings. Sometime later they were placed in cardboard boxes and removed to a builders' shed in the Parliament Buildings precinct. There they remained, apparently untended, until 1982 when they came to the attention of the Archives. When the records were transferred to the Archives a number of file folders were found to be empty. In most cases, the empty folders concerned cabinet ministers and the work of various government departments. Similarly, contemporary file lists [see Box 131, File 11] indicate that a number of folders were missing from the original series of files. No files marked "Anonymous," for example, were among the boxes received by the Archives, despite the fact that files containing anonymous letters inward were maintained over the years by the Premier's Office. Nor were any "Confidential" files included with the transfer, although they were part of the Premier's filing system. These files may have been removed when W.A.C. Bennett left office in 1972, or they may have been removed sometime after 1976 when W.R. Bennett became premier. [In her interview (taped in 1978) Mrs. Mylrea noted that Premier Bennett asked her to "go through" the correspondence files on 31 August 1972, the day after his party's electoral defeat. Mrs. Mylrea spent the next two weeks reviewing "every piece of paper in those files." "I did not find one thing that nobody else could have looked at" she related, "there was nothing that anybody need be afraid that anybody could see, opposition or otherwise." Nevertheless, some of the files were removed and were taken by Mr. Bennett to his Kelowna home. [SMID 3236:1-2, pp.16-17] Researchers should also note the absence of W.A.C. Bennett's constituency files in this collection. According to the premier's secretary, records dealing with the South Okanagan riding were maintained separately in the premier's Kelowna office. After his death in February, 1979, the Bennett family donated the records to the Simon Fraser University archives. [SMID 3236:1-1, p.17] Despite the absence of certain files, GR-1414 is a remarkably rich collection of executive records. The evolution of the Social Credit Party can be detected in many of the memos and reports in the collection; public attitudes towards government policies can be seen in much of the correspondence inward, while the province's economic growth can be discerned in files devoted to industrial development or to particular companies. Federal-provincial relations are also well documented, as are the activities of local chambers of commerce and sundry community groups throughout the province. Indeed, as a source of documentation for British Columbia in the 1950s and 1960s, GR-1414 is unrivalled.

British Columbia. Premier