[Frequitude]

Gary Lamphier: How much money has flowed out of Alberta to Ottawa? A lot

If you’re still wondering why oil-rich Alberta doesn’t have a massive sovereign wealth fund like Norway, consider this. Alberta is a province, not a country. Ergo, we don’t get to keep all the wealth we generate in this province. Not even close.

...

So just how much money has flowed out of Alberta to Ottawa? A lot. Between 2000 and 2014, on a net basis, Alberta’s individual and corporate taxpayers shipped an estimated $200 billion-plus to the federal government. That’s what left the province, less what the feds reinvested here.

To put that lofty figure in perspective, it’s nearly 12 times the value of the $17.4 billion Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund. No other province — including Ontario, with three times Alberta’s population — even comes close to matching this province’s contribution to the federation.

...

McDougall was also motivated by the fact that other provinces, which have benefited immensely from Alberta’s energy wealth, are now explicitly or implicitly opposing new oil export pipelines, thus jeopardizing Canada’s economic future.

“Other provinces have basically been trying to extort benefits out of pipelines going through their province. To a certain degree I can understand that, but when it gets to the point where they are as bellicose as (Montreal mayor) Denis Coderre has been, I just find it sickening,” he says.

“I’m really disappointed as a Canadian that we’ve got a federation that tolerates this kind of thing. I mean we’re talking about staggering amounts of money here, so maybe other provinces have to share a bit of inconvenience and a bit of environmental risk. But they’ve been directly benefiting from Alberta’s economy for years.”