Two things I like to remind my Albertan correspondents on X: if Alberta's government feels it has too little money to properly serve its residents ...
1. If Alberta's government feels it has too little money to properly serve its residents: why doesn't just raise taxes to pay for services shortages? And why did it forego the 2% GST reduction enacted during the Harper years, converting it into 2% sales tax. Quebec raised its QST by 2 percentage points, why not Alberta if it really needs the money?
Right now, what anti/reform- equalization Albertans don't realize is that they pay unusually low taxes because their government, rather than converting resource revenue (oil n' gas, in particular) into more/better services or into a sovereign wealth fund, chooses to distribute excess resource revenue to its residents, in the form of lower taxes. That's a legitimate political choice ... but one that comes at a self-imposed price. Also, lower taxes means more $$$ staying in the hands of wealthier residents.
2. If "better off" Alberta really is putting in effort to satisfy the needs of its residents ... why are its residents much LESS happy than they seemingly ought to be. The UN have published a "world happiness report" that finds that Quebec's residents, considering it as if it weren't part of Canada, is SIXTH highest in the world, up at Nordic levels. Canada's (Quebec included) overall happiness dropped from fifth to 25th in 10 years (during whose government as PM?) and to 35th (!!!) if Quebec's taken out. I don't have numbers for Alberta residents' "happiness level", but I doubt very much its hitting anything near Quebec's "happiness" KPI.
Food for thought, regarding what a provincial government's role is in satisfying residents with their lives.
IIRC, EQ recipient provinces tend to overtax in relation to the Canadian average. Quebec is a very good example of that, and Alberta is notorious in it under taxes compared to the Canadian average.
As you point out, Alberta can fix its problems by its own hand, but more often seems to want to whine about what other people achieve. The fact that Quebec is running surplus is more recently – although not every year – compared to Alberta chronic deficits is part of that discussion that Alberta just doesn’t want to talk about.
We all have our issues. Quebec's, which no one talks about, is it trade deficit.
After some of our resource industries shrank drastically, notably our pulp and paper industry, provincial revenue shrank and our trade deficit increased. Last time I looked, it sat at $13 billion per annum ... and I've just looked now and it's THIRTY billion. Ouch! Our separatists will have some 'splainin' to do.
Trump can complain that We Quebecers have a comfortable trade surplus with America, we've a sizable 5%-of-GDP deficit worldwide.
Canada has a small surplus of $4 billion, 0.5% of GDP.
Alberta has ... a surplus of $81 billion worldwide, its GDP per capita is just short $100,000 per annum, and its government STILL manages to run a $9.4 billion annual deficit. Ninnyhammers!
Along the same line ... Newfoundland and Labrador has a $14 billion trade surplus, has a $77,000 GDP-per-capita (compared to Quebec's $68,000), and ITS government is lost to all virtue, spending like drunken sailors, as you well reveal.
And in all this ... Canada'd dropped from 5th place to 25th in the UN's "Happiness Index", to 35th if Quebec's excluded. Quebec, on its is own is SIXTH happiest ... a NORDIC level!
Tis to wonder what our politicians see and talk about before making decisions. :-S
About Albertans paying unusually low taxes ... I tell my X chummies that they receive, effectively, annual dividends in the form of low taxes. Instead of those, Alberta could raise personal taxes, lower business ones (I've read that a $1 reduction would raise Alberta's GDP $46) and set aside resource revenues in a sovereign wealth / rainy day fund. At the very least, that would stabilize government revenue, which now relies on volatile oil and gas prices.
Ah well ... "Conservatives hate taxes" is hard-coded into their dominant collective psyche, to their detriment.
Two things I like to remind my Albertan correspondents on X: if Alberta's government feels it has too little money to properly serve its residents ...
1. If Alberta's government feels it has too little money to properly serve its residents: why doesn't just raise taxes to pay for services shortages? And why did it forego the 2% GST reduction enacted during the Harper years, converting it into 2% sales tax. Quebec raised its QST by 2 percentage points, why not Alberta if it really needs the money?
Right now, what anti/reform- equalization Albertans don't realize is that they pay unusually low taxes because their government, rather than converting resource revenue (oil n' gas, in particular) into more/better services or into a sovereign wealth fund, chooses to distribute excess resource revenue to its residents, in the form of lower taxes. That's a legitimate political choice ... but one that comes at a self-imposed price. Also, lower taxes means more $$$ staying in the hands of wealthier residents.
2. If "better off" Alberta really is putting in effort to satisfy the needs of its residents ... why are its residents much LESS happy than they seemingly ought to be. The UN have published a "world happiness report" that finds that Quebec's residents, considering it as if it weren't part of Canada, is SIXTH highest in the world, up at Nordic levels. Canada's (Quebec included) overall happiness dropped from fifth to 25th in 10 years (during whose government as PM?) and to 35th (!!!) if Quebec's taken out. I don't have numbers for Alberta residents' "happiness level", but I doubt very much its hitting anything near Quebec's "happiness" KPI.
Food for thought, regarding what a provincial government's role is in satisfying residents with their lives.
IIRC, EQ recipient provinces tend to overtax in relation to the Canadian average. Quebec is a very good example of that, and Alberta is notorious in it under taxes compared to the Canadian average.
As you point out, Alberta can fix its problems by its own hand, but more often seems to want to whine about what other people achieve. The fact that Quebec is running surplus is more recently – although not every year – compared to Alberta chronic deficits is part of that discussion that Alberta just doesn’t want to talk about.
We all have our issues. Quebec's, which no one talks about, is it trade deficit.
After some of our resource industries shrank drastically, notably our pulp and paper industry, provincial revenue shrank and our trade deficit increased. Last time I looked, it sat at $13 billion per annum ... and I've just looked now and it's THIRTY billion. Ouch! Our separatists will have some 'splainin' to do.
Trump can complain that We Quebecers have a comfortable trade surplus with America, we've a sizable 5%-of-GDP deficit worldwide.
Canada has a small surplus of $4 billion, 0.5% of GDP.
Alberta has ... a surplus of $81 billion worldwide, its GDP per capita is just short $100,000 per annum, and its government STILL manages to run a $9.4 billion annual deficit. Ninnyhammers!
Along the same line ... Newfoundland and Labrador has a $14 billion trade surplus, has a $77,000 GDP-per-capita (compared to Quebec's $68,000), and ITS government is lost to all virtue, spending like drunken sailors, as you well reveal.
And in all this ... Canada'd dropped from 5th place to 25th in the UN's "Happiness Index", to 35th if Quebec's excluded. Quebec, on its is own is SIXTH happiest ... a NORDIC level!
Tis to wonder what our politicians see and talk about before making decisions. :-S
About Albertans paying unusually low taxes ... I tell my X chummies that they receive, effectively, annual dividends in the form of low taxes. Instead of those, Alberta could raise personal taxes, lower business ones (I've read that a $1 reduction would raise Alberta's GDP $46) and set aside resource revenues in a sovereign wealth / rainy day fund. At the very least, that would stabilize government revenue, which now relies on volatile oil and gas prices.
Ah well ... "Conservatives hate taxes" is hard-coded into their dominant collective psyche, to their detriment.