🇨🇦 Economist proposes changes to equalization payments to ease provincial tensions

The absurd part is not that Alberta is angry. It is that Ottawa built a transfer machine so warped that poorer provinces are rewarded for keeping revenue low while Alberta gets lectured, taxed, and told to smile. Trevor Tombe’s proposal, as reported, is basically an admission that the current formula invites gaming and punishes growth. When a system can be manipulated by provincial policy choices, it is not equalization. It is political bribery with constitutional branding.

The numbers say everything. A record $27.2 billion this year, with $13.9 billion going to Quebec, while Alberta and Saskatchewan shoulder more of the burden through federal taxes and get the usual sermon about national unity. Quebec can ban oil and gas exploration, subsidize electricity in ways that lower its assessed fiscal capacity, then still collect the cheque. Very Canadian, in the worst sense. This is what post-national governance looks like: productive provinces treated like ATMs, resource development turned into a morality play, and Ottawa pretending the resentment is a mystery.

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