[MarchHare]

Quebect receives 5.54 billion and is in line to receive 6.46 billion next year. 5.54 billion / 3 million in alberta....you do the math.

That's not how equalization works.

Every Canadian taxpayer pays into the "pool" of federal tax dollars earmarked for equalization. That money is then sent to the provincial governments of the "have not" provinces. So Ontario and Alberta aren't paying for equalization alone; every province is paying for equalization. The distinction is that a taxpayer in Manitoba, for example, sees a portion of the taxes they pay to the federal government sent back to their provincial government while Alberta and Ontario do not, so those two provinces are net contributers to equalization while the other eight are net recipients. It's disingenuous to say that every Albertan is paying $1500 to Quebec as that's simply not the case.

However in quebec, a province brimming with resources and manufacturing industries why is their such a major budget deficit? It smells fishy and lazy.

Quebec has the resources and people to be able to balance a budget while maintaining a social system in line with the rest of canada (In my opinion anyways).

Having a budget deficit has no bearing on being entitled to equalization or not. New Brunswick was one of (if not the) first provinces in the country to have a balanced budget, but they still receive equalization. It all depends on a given province's ability to generate revenue and nothing at all to do with whether they spend their tax dollars responsibly or not. The provincial governments of Ontario and Alberta could run huge deficits and they still wouldn't be entitled to equalization payments.