[Makarov]

Originally Posted by V

What does that mean? I'd love a chance to get schooled on equalization. While I know a few ways it doesn't work, I'm still not clear on how it does.

I find that this is a helpful resource: https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebs...ons/200820E#a3

This is an excerpt from a summary in the linked to document:

The basic structure of Equalization is relatively straightforward. On a per capita basis, Equalization assesses a province’s ability to generate own-source revenues and compares that fiscal capacity to the average fiscal capacity for all provinces. With the exception of user fees (fees for the use of public services), all provincial government revenue sources are allocated to one of five categories: personal income taxes, business income taxes, consumption taxes, property taxes and natural resource revenues.

Save for natural resource revenues, the Equalization formula estimates fiscal capacity in each of the four remaining revenue categories by determining the amount of per capita revenue that each province could generate if all provinces had identical tax rates. Because of the wide range of natural resources and royalty structures across the provinces, actual resource revenues are used to measure fiscal capacity instead of creating a national average tax rate.

To determine which provinces are eligible for Equalization – and, if so, for how much – each province’s per capita fiscal capacity in all five revenue categories is compared to the average fiscal capacity of the 10 provinces. If, according to the formula, a province has a below-average ability to generate own-source revenues, then it is eligible for an Equalization payment to make up the difference. If a province’s revenue-generating ability exceeds the 10-province average, then it is not eligible for an Equalization payment.