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Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
That's false.
Transfer payments are based on federal revenue like income taxes, business taxes, and GST. This money is all pooled, and then redistributed back to the provinces based on a formula that compares average per capita revenue of provinces to average tax rates.
So a high-income person in New Brunswick pays more into the federal coffers than a low-income Albertan. Alberta has been a net payer into the program simply because there are more people with high incomes in this province than in other provinces.
This notion that the every Albertan puts X amount more into federal coffers than their counterparts in other provinces, or that Alberta writes cheques to other provinces, is demagoguery and nonsense.
And I find it curious that the people who froth and bluster about equalization payments the loudest never say a peep about the huge transfer of revenues in Alberta from the cities to the rural parts of the province. Calgary generates far more revenue than it receives in provincial funding, and some rural parts of the province barely generate enough revenue to pave their roads, let alone build hospitals and schools. I understand the merits of a model that ensures people across the province have equal access to government services. But surely if it's a good policy for Alberta, then it's a good policy for Canada.
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A lot of the municipalities in this province are huge net contributors. Look at Greenview, Opportunity and of course Wood Buffalo. Take a few of those out of the picture and the province is significantly different.