The 1982 resource amendment to the Constitution, section 92A, purports to alter the balance of federal-provincial legislative powers in relation to natural resources. Section 92A was enacted into the Constitution largely as a result of the federal-provincial resource conflicts of the 1970\u27s and early 1980\u27s; conflicts in which the chief antagonists were the federal government and the governments of the Western provinces. In this article, the authors discuss the development of section 92A from its roots in the conflicts of the 1970\u27s, and explore section 92A\u27s possible legal, political and economic effects on the inter-governmental framework for managing Canadian resources and on the resolution of any future federal-provincial conflicts over resources
