Quebec delivers balanced budget

[Flatlander]

Equalization is working just fine for Quebec. They just delivered the third consecutive balanced budget and even featured tax reduction. Keep working, risking, paying more tax Mr. / Mrs. western farmer.

[Guest]

Yea brad , tell them to kiss your ass .let them raise their taxes . Maybe they can tax their life ins , crop ins , etc

[SASKFARMER3]

Yea they do on the backs of western Canada.

[grassfarmer]

Can anyone show how much and where equalization payments featured in the Quebec budget?

[farmaholic]

Likely a vague mention and well disquised.....

[ajl]

They will show up as federal transfers for health care and other items in the budget so they never even use the word equalization. You add up such transfers and then deduct the portion that Quebec tax payers sent to Ottawa minus the per capita spending by Ottawa on other items, in order to estimate the contribution other taxpayers make to Quebec. The average person in Quebec has no idea how much the place is subsidized from beyond its borders.

[mcfarms]

[URL="https://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/mtp-eng.asp"]https://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/mtp-eng.asp[/URL]

here is the transfer numbers they are always line items in a provincial budget.


Quebec gets double per capita than the three western most provinces but less than the three most eastern .
I feel a fair assessment of the program is to look at it as a per person formula rather than focusing on the total numbers.
That said don't look at the northern part of the country you may wanna give it all to Russia.

[chuckChuck]

[URL="https://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/mtp-eng.asp"]https://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/mtp-eng.asp[/URL]

here is the transfer numbers they are always line items in a provincial budget.


Quebec gets double per capita than the three western most provinces but less than the three most eastern .
I feel a fair assessment of the program is to look at it as a per person formula rather than focusing on the total numbers.
That said don't look at the northern part of the country you may wanna give it all to Russia.

Mcfarms. I am glad you posted that link as per capita transfers paint a clearer picture. Since it is a federal program and funded by federal tax revenues, higher income taxpayers all across the country including Ontario and Quebec pay more into the program. Alberta has higher incomes than Quebec because of the resource industries so they don't get equalization transfers but they still get a lot of health and welfare transfers from the federal government.

The northern territories and 3 maritime provinces are the biggest beneficiaries on a per capita basis. Politicians and individuals who love to use east vs west wedge, like to stir up resentment with equalization transfers. But it is a federal program. Without it we would have a very divided country with a lot of provincial disparity in programs and services. Have provinces are have provinces because they are richer provinces with higher incomes and per capita GDP.


From Wikipedia: Calculating payments

Equalization payments are based on a formula that calculates the difference between the per capita revenue yield that a particular province would obtain using average tax rates and the national average per capita revenue yield at average tax rates. The current formula considers five major revenue sources (see below). The objective of the program is to ensure that all provinces have access to per capita revenues equal to the potential average of all ten provinces. The formula is based solely on revenues and does not consider the cost of providing services or the expenditure need of the provinces.

Equalization payments happen via the federal treasury. As an example, a wealthy citizen in New Brunswick, a so-called "have not" province, pays more into equalization than a poorer citizen in Alberta, a so-called "have" province. However, because of Alberta's greater wealth, the citizens of Alberta as a whole are net contributors to Equalization, while the citizens of New Brunswick are net receivers of Equalization payments.

Equalization payments are one example of what are often collectively referred to in Canada as "transfer payments", a term used in other jurisdictions to refer to cash payments to individuals (see Canadian transfer payments). The money the provinces receive through equalization can be spent in any way the provincial government desires. The payments help guarantee "reasonably comparable levels" of health care, education, and welfare in all the provinces. The definition of "reasonably comparable levels", however, has been the subject of considerable debate.

In 2009-2010, the total amount of the program was roughly 16.1 billion Canadian dollars.

[Oliver88]

Equalization is working just fine for Quebec. They just delivered the third consecutive balanced budget and even featured tax reduction. Keep working, risking, paying more tax Mr. / Mrs. western farmer.

This would be a good program to end for Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC.

Why has Quebec collected EVERY year? (Correct me if they haven't)

No point to reward non-resource based economies while not factoring in Quebec and Manitoba exporting hydroelectric power.

[chuckChuck]

This would be a good program to end for Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC.

Why has Quebec collected EVERY year? (Correct me if they haven't)

No point to reward non-resource based economies while not factoring in Quebec and Manitoba exporting hydroelectric power.

But even with Federal transfers to Quebec their per capita income and gdp are still lower than Alberta. So the majority of benefits of the resource sector still stay in Alberta.

Alberta and Saskatchewan were blessed with lots of natural resources. They aren't successful because they work harder or longer or are true blue Albertans. They are successful because they are sitting on a shit load of oil, potash etc.

If you want a happy family farm to do you give one farming kid 3 sections and the other farming kid 1 section and expect them to get along?

[SASKFARMER3]

No chuck Quebec has stuff to. It's easy to pull money out of the rest of canada for them.
But they know a good thing and they are sucking it dry.

[danny W1M]

Quebeck gets $10billion of the $17 billion in the pot.

I understand that somehow Hydro electric power isn't included in the formula for calculating transfers between provinces, so really their biggest resource income isn't shared at all, and is used for their own citizens, while other provinces(western) subsidize Quebecks provincial budget with income from western resources.

The timeline for the formula to react to downturns happens so slowly that SK and AB will likely keep the transfers flowing to Quebeck, Ont, and the Maritime for 2-3 more years.

If things don't pick up in the west in 2-3 years, I'm sure the taker provinces will want to change the formula before it turns against them in 4 or 5 years.