Editing ATB Financial (section)

=== Background ===

[[File:William Aberhart2.jpg|thumb|right|Premier [[William Aberhart]]]]
The Alberta Treasury Branches were created by the [[Social Credit Party of Alberta|Social Credit]] government of Premier [[William Aberhart]] in 1938, with its roots dating back to political unrest in 1917 arising from the unmet credit demands of the [[Western Canada|West]].<ref name="Post">{{Cite news |last=Post |first=John Turley-Ewart, Special to Financial |date=2019-12-20 |title=John Turley-Ewart: Banking in Alberta takes an historic turn as province pushes ATB to mimic Toronto banks |language=en |work=Financial Post |url=https://financialpost.com/opinion/john-turley-ewart-banking-in-alberta-takes-an-historic-turn-as-province-pushes-atb-to-mimic-toronto-banks |access-date=2022-11-12}}</ref> Prior to ATB Financial's formation, Aberhart and Social Credit swept into power in the [[1935 Alberta general election|1935 Alberta election]] in a wave of unrest following [[John Edward Brownlee sex scandal|scandals]] surrounding the [[United Farmers of Alberta|United Farmers]] Premier [[John Edward Brownlee]]. Aberhart's government sought radical monetary reform in a province which was devastated by the [[Great Depression]], as well as greater economic autonomy from both the federal government and financial institutions based largely in Toronto and Montréal.<ref name="Post"/>

However, in two years Aberhart's government failed to bring forward promised reforms, which resulted in a [[1937 Social Credit backbenchers' revolt|backbencher revolt]] forcing the government to pass three pieces of controversial financial reform acts. ''Credit of Alberta Regulation Act'' required all bankers to obtain a licence from the Social Credit Commission, ''Bank Employees Civil Rights Act'' prevented unlicensed banks and their employees from initiating [[civil actions]], and ''Judicature Act Amendment Act'' prevented any person from challenging the constitutionality of Alberta's laws in court without receiving the approval of the [[Lieutenant-Governor in Council]].{{sfn|MacPherson|1953|p=177}} In August 1937, the federal government [[Disallowance and reservation in Canada|disallowed]] all three acts. The [[Supreme Court of Canada]], in answering [[reference question]]s posed by the federal government, unanimously ruled that such disallowance was valid.<ref>{{cite CanLII|litigants=Reference re The Power of the Governor General in Council to Disallow Provincial Legislation and the Power of Reservation of a Lieutenant-Governor of a Province|link=|year=1938|court=scc|num=34|format=canlii|pinpoint=|parallelcite=[1938] SCR 71|date=March 4, 1938|courtname=auto|juris=}}</ref>

Aberhart returned with three new bills, ''Bank Taxation Act'' (Bill 1) levying provincial taxes on banks' paid-up capital and reserve funds at punitive rates, ''Credit of Alberta Regulation Act, 1937'' (Bill 8) similar to the previous disallowed act, but covering all "credit institutions", and ''[[Accurate News and Information Act]]'' (Bill 9) requiring newspapers to print "clarifications" of stories considered inaccurate by the Social Credit Board, and to reveal their sources on demand, and also authorizing the provincial government to prohibit the publication of any newspaper, any article by a given writer, or any article making use of a given source. All three bills were [[Disallowance and reservation in Canada|reserved]] by Lieutenant Governor [[John C. Bowen]], and the federal government posed the [[reference question]]s to the Supreme Court. In ''[[Reference Re Alberta Statutes]]'' the Supreme Court ruled all three bills as ''[[ultra vires]]''.{{sfn|Elliott|2004|p=141}}