Former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow trusted only a handful of people to serve on a secret committee considering the province’s options — including leaving Canada — if Quebec separatists won the 1995 referendum.

The “constitutional contingencies” committee — its members included only Romanow, Intergovernmental Affairs minister Ed Tchorzewski and two or three deputy ministers — met in secret, fearing its controversial work could leak if the NDP cabinet and caucus and others were brought into discussions.

“It would have been absolutely foolish to talk about it at the time,” Romanow said in an interview with The StarPhoenix, adding such revelations would have hurt his government and strengthened separatist campaign efforts.

“You had to have the committee meeting in secret; otherwise, you’d have headlines (like), ‘Romanow considering pulling out.’ The key word is ‘contingency’ — contingent on a successful vote for Quebec separation. What were our options?”

The committee’s existence is revealed in political journalist Chantal Hebert’s new book, The Morning After: The Quebec Referendum and the Day that Almost Was, to be published Sept. 2. A preview of the book and information about Romanow’s committee were recently published in Maclean’s magazine.

“This was a very prudent thing to do, and I’m glad we did not have to exercise the options,” Romanow said in a phone interview Monday. “I hope we never have to face this problem again.”

Many ideas for Saskatchewan in a Quebec-less Canada were considered, including seceding from the country and annexation by the U.S. However, those options were never seriously debated, as the committee was simply putting everything on the table for evaluation, Romanow said.

“The separation idea simply was not on. It would not make sense economically and socially,” he said.

“It would offend everything with respect to my personal history. I didn’t go through patriation and the Night of the Long Knives and the Charlottetown accord for that — these are things I believe in passionately, so (secession) was simply not on.”

The most serious option the committee considered was establishing a strengthened western Canadian partnership with B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and the territories. The major concern for the provincial government was the effect of Quebec separation on Saskatchewan’s already fragile economy, which had just started to turn around, Romanow said.

“The last thing I could take as premier, having got out of the deficit, was a downgrade in the credit rating and a downgrade in economic activity,” he said. “We were driven to look at these options by the fiscal situation as much as for the love of keeping Canada together.”

If Quebec separated, Atlantic Canada would be “an island,” Ontario would likely strengthen its “north-south” economic partnerships and the western provinces would be on their own, Romanow said, describing the committee’s thinking at the time.

“What would happen to the Canadian dollar? How would we manage the St. Lawrence Seaway and all the joint projects in Quebec and Ontario? It was a plethora of these questions.”

Romanow said he has never heard stories of other provinces considering similar options leading up to the 1995 referendum, but this wasn’t the first time a Saskatchewan premier held similar meetings about previous referendums.

“Allan Blakeney, who was my mentor and for whom I was deputy premier, also had some informal working arrangement like the committee advising him just in case (Quebec premier) René Lévesque was successful with his referendum gambit.”

jjwarren@thestarphoenix.com

Twitter.com/jjwrrn