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Originally Posted by Brewmaster
I know the Federal government collects and distributes all money associated with equalization. That doesn't change the fact that the provinces producing resources (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, and to a lesser extent BC) are paying more into the system and getting less out per capita than the rest of Canada. It's not a direct transfer of provincial revenue but it is a large amount of money leaving our province. I'm not even necessarily against equalization, but it needs to be considered when comparing Alberta and Norway's funds from oil and gas production.
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Alberta taxpayers paying more in federal taxes than the province receives back is a wholly different concept than this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brewmaster
The fact is over $16 billion in equalization were directed to Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI in the 2013-2014 year. The majority of this money is coming from Alberta.
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The majority of that money isn't coming from Alberta; not even close.
Yeah provinces with a higher proportion of high earners, more federally taxable economic activity, and a very high standard of living are going to benefit less from the equalization system, but that's just the nature of federalism. Complaining about equalization as vociferously as some do makes about as much sense to me as someone in Alberta complaining about paying for the Navy because they have no coastline or someone in Hawaii not wanting to pay taxes that pay for interstates.