Premiers always have hands out for more welfare from Ottawa
One of the biggest political scams in our country right now must be de-mands by so-called ‘have-not’ provinces for more equalization funding.
Here’s why:
To buy a modest ‘starter’ home in Calgary will set a young couple back a minimum of $350,000, yet in picturesque Prince Edward Island, $350,000 will buy someone the equivalent of a waterfront four-bedroom mansion with a spacious garden.
Same in other parts of the Atlantic provinces.
So why are we sending the people who live in P.E.I. and similar regions billions of dollars in “equalization” payments to supposedly bring their standard of living up to ours?
Yes, $70-a-barrel oil may be benefitting someone, but it is surely not of benefit to anyone trying to buy their first home.
A one-bedroom condo with no luxury facilities or grounds goes for $200,000 here, a bare two-bedroom condo for $300,000. Just a week ago even a 600-sq.-ft. one-bedroom condo sold for $300,000!
Yet that kind of dough puts residents in supposedly “have-not” provinces in the millionaire class.
There’s a huge squabble going on because premiers of the so-called have-not provinces figure the $12-billion transferred to them from the likes of Alberta and Ontario is too little.
They want more—lots more.
Right now, as Premier Ralph Klein points out, the average Alberta family of four contributes $12,000 a year more in federal taxes to Ottawa than it receives in benefits. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty squawks because the average family of four in Ontario pays out some $3,000 more a year to Ottawa than it receives back!
But, not at all ashamed of living on handouts, premiers from the mythical have-not provinces want to rake in another $1 billion a year in equalization payments.
Manitoba Premier Gary Doer—a whining socialist, naturally—has been demanding for years Alberta share its oil wealth with his province’s residents. Surely, if Doer had any leadership abilities, he could balance his budget, cut taxes and get his province’s economy rolling to stand on its own two feet.
More audacity: With oil money flowing into Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, their premiers cut side deals with Prime Minister Paul Martin to keep their oil bonanzas but still get equalization payments. Saskatchewan wants to do the same.
What gall.
Now, the spur for this column came from Mark Milke, author of A Nation of Serfs: How Canada’s Political Culture Corrupts Canadian Values (Wiley, $26.99), a must-read book I chronicled in “Nation of sheep” (June 13.)
Milke has a lot to say about the equalization charade—none of it complimentary—pointing out that, year after year, premiers come up with new demands for more welfare from Ottawa, inventing new catch words along the way.
These days the ruse is the “fiscal imbalance.”
He points out dumping money into these provinces, whether in equalization payments, employment insurance, or regional economic development grants, never seems to ease—never mind eradicate—their curses.
What it does, as with a downtown panhandler, is enable their governments to avoid tough decisions to make their provinces economically going concerns with residents punching time clocks rather than pouring back beer in the local tavern.
Milke contends rather than transfer cash to provinces, Ottawa should transfer tax points.
This way, Ottawa would tax less, and allow the provinces to tax more, or, in the case of Alberta, perhaps tax even less.
It’s an idea Prime Minister Stephen Harper—who wants to return to the provinces rights that Lester Pearson, Pierre Trudeau, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin took away from them, either by stealth or storm—is considering.
The fly in the ointment, of course, is that as with Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and oil wealth, some premiers might still expect both tax points and equalization payments.
Face it, in a nation as rich in resources coast-to-coast as our country is, any province that isn’t flourishing from one resource or another must be badly managed.
The bottom line, though, is still—and Klein or his successor should run with it—is why in a province such as Alberta, where cash-strapped families struggle to buy a home, we’re sending huge amounts of dough to families in other provinces where homes are dirt cheap.
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