Quote:
Originally Posted by Snakeeye
I am rather curious as to how this screws Saskatchewan and Newfoundland, but not Alberta.
Not a big fan of this move, if true.
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As was noted above, Alberta already doesn't receive equalization, nor is this province's revenue included among the "five province average" when determining how much (if any) equalization each province receives, so Alberta is insulated from any repercussions of this move.
As for Saskatchewan, they were considered a "have" province and received no equalization in 2004, but they returned to "have not" status and received $652 million in 2005, and $82 million last year. They do appear to be on the way back to being a "have" province, though, so I'm not quite sure where all this anger is coming from (other than the fact that Harper is breaking a campaign promise, of course).
Newfoundland, on the other hand, ought to be
really ****ed about this move, as the 2005 agreement with the Liberal government guaranteed that their offshore revenue would receive "100 percent protection from Equalization reductions resulting from the inclusion of offshore revenues in the Equalization program for eight years (from 2004-05 to 2011-12)"*. Moreover, Harper personally vowed that he would honour the terms of that agreement if his party was elected.
So along with the taxation of income trusts, that's two
major campaign promises the CPC has now broken. But only the dirty "fiberals" break their promises, right? Surely the noble Conservatives are a party of the people and do exactly what they say they will do and keep their pledges...
*Source:
http://www.fin.gc.ca/FEDPROV/nae.html