1 n. — Administration, Politics
the transfer of responsibilities, duties, or authority to the provincial levels; to download, decentralize.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — Provincialization had been used in the British imperial context to denote the move toward independence in certain colonies. In the Canadian context, the term refers to a transfer of governmental authority, usually from the federal level, to the provinces.
See also COD-2, s.v. "provincialization", which is marked "Cdn", and OED-3, s.v. "provincialize" (3), which is marked "Canad."
See also: upload download
2 n. — rare
in some contexts, the term can be used synonymously with to upload from a lower, e.g., municipal or private levels, to the provincial levels.
Type: 3. Semantic Change —