Alberta doesn’t send oil money to have-nots, and Ontario contributes more than Alberta

  • Quebec's social programs are paid by Quebecers, they have, by far, the highest income and sales taxes in Canada...

  • Despite charging the highest income and sales taxes in Canada, Quebec still doesn't meet the same revenues generation capacity as the Canadian average.

  • Quebec and the other "have-not" are not doing anything wrong, they just can't keep up with the increase Canadian average revenues generation capacity. The average was pushed upwards in large part by the Western oil production.

  • Blaming the "have-not" provinces for receiving equalization is like blaming them for not having a huge reserve of oil and gas...

  • Early in Canadian history, Eastern Canada was the economic engine of Canada. Quebec, Ontario and the Maritime provinces financed the development of the entire country with their flourishing industrial sector, fisheries, Logging , banking, mineral (iron ore, asbestos, nickel) and European trade.

Basically what happened to the east is that other countries who could produce at a cheaper rate, damaged the economic base of eastern provinces.

Basically, Quebec, Ontario and other have-not provinces get equalization because they have been priced out of their traditional revenue streams by cheaper low-wages countries.

The oil and gas resources in Quebec are, according to many experts, not economically viable (Shale oil and gas exploration in Quebec shows that it is closer to wishful thinking than it is to a viable industry).

So basically, the West is blaming the East for not being able to compete against low-wage countries.

What would happen is Quebec decided to lower its wages to match those in low-wages countries?

Simply, the capacity of Quebec to collect revenues would be even lower that it is today, much lower that the Canadian average, calling for Quebec to get even more in equalization payments.

the problem is impossible to fix unless some oil and gas magically appear in "have-not" provinces in quatity that would make exploring them economically viable.

/r/canada Thread Link - vueweekly.com