Opinion
Devolution is not a favour, it is a right
A district that cannot tax, borrow or license its own industry will always be a colony of the capital.
I have sat in the Assembly for twenty-four years, and in that time the district chambers have lost the power to tax a mill, license a foundry or borrow against a bridge. What is left is an office and a sign.
Blue Dawn will tell you that the districts are not ready. They said the same before 1998, when a northern lawyer took SeverMin to court on behalf of three villages and the Red Water case forced the company to open its files. The districts were ready. They were simply not permitted.
The bill now before the Assembly does not ask for independence or for a new treasury. It asks that the chamber nearest the water be the one that decides who may discharge into it. That is not a favour from the capital. It is the least the capital owes the north.