Equalization is a simple problem

The East is struggling because of many factors:

• The economic pole has shifted from trade with Europe to trade with Asia, which mainly profits BC.

• The fundamentals of the industrial sector in the East is under assault by low-wage countries.

• The Canadian average revenue collection capacity (the average revenues provinces are able to collect) has been pushed upwards by the oil and gas boom in the West, while that capacity in the East has remained constant or has fallen.

The high dollar

The high dollar of the past 10 years has killed any chances the East had to revive its industrial sector. It will take 10 to 20 years of low Canadian dollar to restart the industries in the East.

Quebec is trying

Quebec has consistently had the highest taxes in all of Canada for the past 40 years. Quebec is trying hard to keep up with the Canadian average revenue generation capacity but it just can't. It's people are basically working 7 months/year just to pay their taxes.

But when natural resources like oil and gas drive the average upwards, no province without oil can keep up.

Unless Quebec finds some new magical product that it can bring to market without being undercut by other countries, chances are that it won't ever be able to catch-up to Alberta.

getting the most amount in equalization does not make a province poor

Quebec is still the second largest contributor to Canadian GDP after Ontario and the 16th largest economy in the world.

What people must get is that equalization is not meant to fight poverty, it is meant to equalize the revenue collection capacity of the provinces.

Without equalization,