As long as we do not have equal votes all across Canada Quebec and Atlantic Canada will always rob the taxpayers of Ontario and Alberta by voting themselves entitlements. That is what happens when there are no elected checks and balances. It takes 4 votes from Alberta to equal 1 vote from the east.
Quebec isn't poor: The province's claim to $4.9-billion in federal equalization payments stands up only until Statistics Canada's cost-of-living benchmark is applied
Gerard Belanger
Financial Post
December 29, 2004
How valid are federal equalization payments to Quebec, now amounting to $4.9-billion? The Canadian Constitution obliges the federal government to "ensure that provincial governments have sufficient revenues to provide reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation." The Government of Quebec has traditionally defended the level of equalization payments it receives on the basis of its economic situation, which is supposedly less favourable than that of Ontario, which receives no equalization payments, and below the average of all provinces combined. Statistics seem to support this point of view. In 2003, Quebec's per capita GDP was 18.6% lower that that of Ontario ($40,257 as compared with $33,936) and 13% below the national average.
By one measure, the poverty rate is higher in Quebec as well. Based on the after-tax low income cut-offs calculated by Statistics Canada, 17.6% of the Quebec population belonged to low-income households in 1996 as compared with 12.3% for Ontario. In 2000, these figures were 13.6% and 9% respectively.
But statistics are like human beings: When subjected to enough torture, they will admit to almost anything. Let us look at our data a little more closely.
Statistics Canada has always refrained from using low revenue cut-offs as a yardstick for measuring poverty. Twice in the past, the former Human Resources Development Canada has used a market basket of goods and services as an alternative measure of poverty. The market basket measure takes into account the differences in the cost of living between regions, and for that reason, it is a more appropriate measure.
When used to measure poverty, the low revenue cut-offs indicate that in 1996, the poverty rate was 5.1 percentage points higher in Quebec than in Ontario; when the market basket measure is used, however, the poverty rate is 1.7 percentage points higher in Ontario than in Quebec. For the year 2000, both measures indicate the rate of poverty is higher in Quebec than it is in Ontario: the low income cut-offs measure yields a difference of 4.6 percentage points, while the market basket measure shows a difference of 0.9 percentage point. Looked at this way, Quebec's rate of low-income households is quite similar to that in Ontario.
As well, according to two different sources, Montreal's cost of living is markedly lower than in Toronto. In 2000, the cost of an identical market basket of goods and services for a reference family was 21.8% higher in Toronto than in Montreal ($27,343 in Toronto and $ 22,441 in Montreal, for a difference of $4,902). Housing costs accounted for 87% of this difference between the two cities.
A recent issue of the publication Consumer Price Index gives the relative cost of living for the principal Canadian cities as of October, 2002. Based on a market basket of all goods and services, the cost of living is 15.8% higher in Toronto than in Montreal. Once again, housing costs make up most of the difference between the two cities.
Quebec isn't poor: The province's claim to $4.9-billion in federal equalization payments stands up only until Statistics Canada's cost-of-living benchmark is applied
Gerard Belanger
Financial Post
December 29, 2004
How valid are federal equalization payments to Quebec, now amounting to $4.9-billion? The Canadian Constitution obliges the federal government to "ensure that provincial governments have sufficient revenues to provide reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation." The Government of Quebec has traditionally defended the level of equalization payments it receives on the basis of its economic situation, which is supposedly less favourable than that of Ontario, which receives no equalization payments, and below the average of all provinces combined. Statistics seem to support this point of view. In 2003, Quebec's per capita GDP was 18.6% lower that that of Ontario ($40,257 as compared with $33,936) and 13% below the national average.
By one measure, the poverty rate is higher in Quebec as well. Based on the after-tax low income cut-offs calculated by Statistics Canada, 17.6% of the Quebec population belonged to low-income households in 1996 as compared with 12.3% for Ontario. In 2000, these figures were 13.6% and 9% respectively.
But statistics are like human beings: When subjected to enough torture, they will admit to almost anything. Let us look at our data a little more closely.
Statistics Canada has always refrained from using low revenue cut-offs as a yardstick for measuring poverty. Twice in the past, the former Human Resources Development Canada has used a market basket of goods and services as an alternative measure of poverty. The market basket measure takes into account the differences in the cost of living between regions, and for that reason, it is a more appropriate measure.
When used to measure poverty, the low revenue cut-offs indicate that in 1996, the poverty rate was 5.1 percentage points higher in Quebec than in Ontario; when the market basket measure is used, however, the poverty rate is 1.7 percentage points higher in Ontario than in Quebec. For the year 2000, both measures indicate the rate of poverty is higher in Quebec than it is in Ontario: the low income cut-offs measure yields a difference of 4.6 percentage points, while the market basket measure shows a difference of 0.9 percentage point. Looked at this way, Quebec's rate of low-income households is quite similar to that in Ontario.
As well, according to two different sources, Montreal's cost of living is markedly lower than in Toronto. In 2000, the cost of an identical market basket of goods and services for a reference family was 21.8% higher in Toronto than in Montreal ($27,343 in Toronto and $ 22,441 in Montreal, for a difference of $4,902). Housing costs accounted for 87% of this difference between the two cities.
A recent issue of the publication Consumer Price Index gives the relative cost of living for the principal Canadian cities as of October, 2002. Based on a market basket of all goods and services, the cost of living is 15.8% higher in Toronto than in Montreal. Once again, housing costs make up most of the difference between the two cities.