The ongoing gap between the “have” and “have not” provinces is an ongoing economic concern and cause of regional tensions. Much of the gap stems from huge differences in geography, population, and economic activity among provinces, which make any attempt to “equalize” these differences challenging. As shown in the table below, PEI’s population is less than 1% of the Canadian total, while Ontario’s population is close to 40%. Alberta’s GDP per capita is 41% higher than the national average while PEI’s is roughly 24% lower—Alberta’s GDP per capita is 185% that of PEI yet the average personal income in Alberta is 159% that of PEI.
However, the stated goal of equalization in Canada is not to equalize economies or ensure that economic outcomes are equal. As stated above, it is to “ensure that provincial governments have sufficient revenues to provide reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation”. Per capita data is central to measuring if provincial outcomes are comparable.
Quebec’s high provincial taxes account for its budget surplus, although without equalization Quebec would have had a deficit. Quebec residents pay the highest provincial tax in the country but the lowest federal tax. Quebec residents pay 16.5% less federal income tax annually than other Canadian provinces due to the Quebec Abatement. This lower direct income tax for Quebec residents is factored in when the federal government transfers (Canada Health Transfer, Canada Social Transfer and Equalization) funds back to the Quebec government.
Alberta Premier Kenney added that, since the inception in 1957 of equalization payments, “Quebec has received equalization money every year of the program, totaling 221 billion dollars or 51 per cent of all payments.” According to the Library of Parliament report, Quebec receives a larger proportion mainly because of the large population in Quebec representing almost a quarter of the population of Canada. It is much larger than most other equalization-receiving provinces, In 2007 changes were made to the equalization formula based in large part on the way the formula used property tax revenues as one of the factors. As a result, Quebec’s proportion of the total amount increased even more since 2007.
On February 28, 2001, Bernard Landry, Parti Québécois leader who took office as Quebec premier on March 8, said that it was “degrading” that Quebec was receiving an extra $1.5 billion in equalization payments in 2001 and that the province had been receiving these payments for over 40 years. Quebec received the “lion’s share” of the 2001 equalization payments. In 2000, Quebec economic growth was slower than that of the other six provinces that were also eligible for payments. Landry blamed the federal government for failing to redistribute “real wealth”, saying Quebec had been “short-changed” for decades because the federal government did not “spend enough in Quebec on research and industry.” Paul Martin, federal finance minister, said Quebec’s separatists “pursue political agendas as opposed to economic agendas” and this did not have the “beneficial results for their population”.
In 2017, the Coalition Avenir Québec said that since 2003, federal equalization payments to Quebec had tripled to more than $11 billion. The party’s leader, François Legault, found it “shameful”. In 2019, CAQ Finance Minister Eric Girard wrote in a Financial Post op-ed, argued reiterate the party support to “raise Québec’s potential GDP growth to two per cent in order to close the wealth gap with the rest of Canada and assume greater economic leadership within the federation”. He ended the article by stating “Someday, Québec will no longer receive equalization payments, and this will be a great day for Québec and Canada.”
Ps: i’m a french canadian from quebec, im also a plumber, so i see alot of people everyday. I have to either go to different houses to work or go in commercial, instutional buildings to build bathroom and stuff… anyway i see many different types of people. None of them talk about this, maybe the politicians do, but the common people don’t. No one gloat about how much money they stole from alberta, because they don’t know about that and they don’t care about that. Most of us are just trying to get to friday with enough energy to have some fun in the week-end dude.
Yep. “Oh it’s so shameful to take all this money, we need to tell the West to get fucked some more! It’s their fault that we need to take all this money!! We’ll just keep taking it for a few more decades, while also making more demands and getting preferential treatment. Oh, no, how insulting for us, we just keep taking more and more of that money! We don’t need this money for all the social programs that Quebec boasts about to others, even though without the money we’d run deficits!”
I get that the regular folks in Quebec are generally ‘normal’. That’s one reason the lopsided crap on the political level is so infuriating for us westerners. I mean, I gotta wait 3 f’ing weeks to see my family GP out here in Vancouver. I sure hope you all took my tax money to get equally stellar treatment back east.
Well that was a great read
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equalization_payments_in_Canada
The ongoing gap between the “have” and “have not” provinces is an ongoing economic concern and cause of regional tensions. Much of the gap stems from huge differences in geography, population, and economic activity among provinces, which make any attempt to “equalize” these differences challenging. As shown in the table below, PEI’s population is less than 1% of the Canadian total, while Ontario’s population is close to 40%. Alberta’s GDP per capita is 41% higher than the national average while PEI’s is roughly 24% lower—Alberta’s GDP per capita is 185% that of PEI yet the average personal income in Alberta is 159% that of PEI.
However, the stated goal of equalization in Canada is not to equalize economies or ensure that economic outcomes are equal. As stated above, it is to “ensure that provincial governments have sufficient revenues to provide reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation”. Per capita data is central to measuring if provincial outcomes are comparable.
Quebec’s high provincial taxes account for its budget surplus, although without equalization Quebec would have had a deficit. Quebec residents pay the highest provincial tax in the country but the lowest federal tax. Quebec residents pay 16.5% less federal income tax annually than other Canadian provinces due to the Quebec Abatement. This lower direct income tax for Quebec residents is factored in when the federal government transfers (Canada Health Transfer, Canada Social Transfer and Equalization) funds back to the Quebec government.
Alberta Premier Kenney added that, since the inception in 1957 of equalization payments, “Quebec has received equalization money every year of the program, totaling 221 billion dollars or 51 per cent of all payments.” According to the Library of Parliament report, Quebec receives a larger proportion mainly because of the large population in Quebec representing almost a quarter of the population of Canada. It is much larger than most other equalization-receiving provinces, In 2007 changes were made to the equalization formula based in large part on the way the formula used property tax revenues as one of the factors. As a result, Quebec’s proportion of the total amount increased even more since 2007.
On February 28, 2001, Bernard Landry, Parti Québécois leader who took office as Quebec premier on March 8, said that it was “degrading” that Quebec was receiving an extra $1.5 billion in equalization payments in 2001 and that the province had been receiving these payments for over 40 years. Quebec received the “lion’s share” of the 2001 equalization payments. In 2000, Quebec economic growth was slower than that of the other six provinces that were also eligible for payments. Landry blamed the federal government for failing to redistribute “real wealth”, saying Quebec had been “short-changed” for decades because the federal government did not “spend enough in Quebec on research and industry.” Paul Martin, federal finance minister, said Quebec’s separatists “pursue political agendas as opposed to economic agendas” and this did not have the “beneficial results for their population”.
In 2017, the Coalition Avenir Québec said that since 2003, federal equalization payments to Quebec had tripled to more than $11 billion. The party’s leader, François Legault, found it “shameful”. In 2019, CAQ Finance Minister Eric Girard wrote in a Financial Post op-ed, argued reiterate the party support to “raise Québec’s potential GDP growth to two per cent in order to close the wealth gap with the rest of Canada and assume greater economic leadership within the federation”. He ended the article by stating “Someday, Québec will no longer receive equalization payments, and this will be a great day for Québec and Canada.”
Ps: i’m a french canadian from quebec, im also a plumber, so i see alot of people everyday. I have to either go to different houses to work or go in commercial, instutional buildings to build bathroom and stuff… anyway i see many different types of people. None of them talk about this, maybe the politicians do, but the common people don’t. No one gloat about how much money they stole from alberta, because they don’t know about that and they don’t care about that. Most of us are just trying to get to friday with enough energy to have some fun in the week-end dude.
Happy easter 👋
Yep. “Oh it’s so shameful to take all this money, we need to tell the West to get fucked some more! It’s their fault that we need to take all this money!! We’ll just keep taking it for a few more decades, while also making more demands and getting preferential treatment. Oh, no, how insulting for us, we just keep taking more and more of that money! We don’t need this money for all the social programs that Quebec boasts about to others, even though without the money we’d run deficits!”
I get that the regular folks in Quebec are generally ‘normal’. That’s one reason the lopsided crap on the political level is so infuriating for us westerners. I mean, I gotta wait 3 f’ing weeks to see my family GP out here in Vancouver. I sure hope you all took my tax money to get equally stellar treatment back east.