Wildrose Panel on Equalization.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/al...297/story.html
Lead by U of C professor and former bank of canada economist Frank Atkins. Comments on definition of equalization:
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Atkins acknowledged there’s a misperception about what equalization actually is.
It’s not as though someone from each province sits down and writes a cheque to Ottawa once a year, he said, but about comparing the amount of money the federal government gets in taxes from Alberta with how much it spends here.
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Report summary includes 6 recommendations:
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The recommendations
1 — Reconsidering the constitutional requirement to provide equalization, and whether it’s unfair and short-sighted to displace more than $17 billion annually from productive regions.
2 — A substantial renovation of the equalization formula, adding measures to evaluate the costs of delivery and population needs in each province.
3 — Make equalization conditional, so that recipient provinces with high program delivery costs must reduce those costs to bring them in line with the national average.
4 — Include non-renewable resource revenue in equalization calculations if it’s used for ordinary operating programs, but not if it’s used for debt repayment or invested in a heritage fund or equivalent.
5 — Substantial reforms to the Employment Insurance program to reduce regional imbalances and treat similarly situated Canadians with more parity.
6 — Establish a special commission in Alberta to examine the fiscal arrangements of the federation, generating new understanding of the arrangements and possible changes.
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