Tag: Province

Lawmakers from the southern Iraqi province of Basra have renewed efforts to seek autonomy from the federal government, as they blame it for problems such as lingering electricity crisis in the oil-rich region. This week the 35-member Basra Provincial Council passed a resolution with a majority vote asking Baghdad to give the province control over its oil resources and financial affairs. Basra politicians have been making calls for an autonomy for more than a decade now. “There is a legal ambiguity and lack of a precedent for forming autonomous regions under the current constitution, given that the Kurdistan region has been established well before,” says Harith Hasan, a nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center. This is something Iraqis are saying a lot these days,” says Ahmed Tabaqchali, an Iraqi investment banker and a commentator on political affairs. Powerful Basra politicians are using autonomy to whitewash their own inefficiency by shifting the blame on the federal government, he told TRT World. Even if by some miracle they get autonomy, they won’t be able to address any of the problems.” Iraq has struggled to generate enough electricity to meet the soaring demand, which in summer can exceed supply by up to 50 percent. It’s all about hope Earlier this year, Iraq approved its 2019 national budget of around $112 billion, it’s largest ever. A Basra politician last year claimed that Bagdad owed the province more than $45 billion. “So I am hopeful.

With an ongoing squabble between Brian Bowman and Brian Pallister in full swing, it is the voters who will ultimately be left paying the price, says a political science professor. Kelly Saunders of Brandon University told 680 CJOB Friday that friction between municipal and provincial governments isn’t anything new, but Winnipeg’s mayor and Manitoba’s premier seem to be taking it to the next level. READ MORE: Manitoba premier and Winnipeg mayor spar over budget delay “There’s always going to be a source of friction, regardless of what political party is in office, between the city and the provincial government,” she said. “I don’t recall the problem being quite this bad before. “I think it has to do with the governing style of this particular premier and certainly the governing style, then, that the entire provincial government has taken on.” Bowman has said that getting a meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is easier than connecting with Pallister, and has been in a public war of words with his provincial counterpart on issues like transit, budgets and more. WATCH: ‘We can do better’: Brian Bowman challenges Pallister Pallister, on the other hand, has suggested positive relationships are a two-way street and that that citizens can make up their own minds about the situation. In a tweet Friday, Pallister said “we trust Manitobans can separate fact from fiction … I call upon all parties to rise above it and work together constructively.” Saunders said the potential fallout from their beef is that important infrastructure projects, for example, could be slowed down or delayed. “If you’ve got the two heads of government in the province not sitting down and working through their issues, at the end of the day, projects aren’t going to be completed on time,” she said. “They’re not going to be completed as effectively and efficiently. © 2019 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.