The Equalization Problem

There is one but not what you think

Over 40 years, the first five premiers after Confederation gathered in September 1990 for the signing of the HIbernia agreements. They shared a workable goal to bring sustainable prosperity to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. Their eight successors over the past 22 years abandoned the goal without any alternative. The result is chronic problems in government finances, the provincial economy, and the wider society that are their legacy. [Image: Richard Sparkes]

Former Premier John Hogan thinks that the provincial government is “back to square one” now that his successor has scrapped Hogan’s lawsuit against Ottawa.

Hogan is right.

We are back to square one.

But really we never left the station on the journey to fixing our problem with Equalization.

Hogan’s lawsuit was always silly because it was never going to work. There’d be lots of time spent and money wasted, mostly on lawyers, but as with the lawsuit against Quebec over the 1969 power contract, the facts were always against Hogan.

The real problem was that Hogan - and now Tony Wakeham - don’t understand that, nor are they doing anything to fix the real problem.