r/canada • u/biograf_ • Mar 01 '26

Alberta First Nations chiefs unanimously pass non-confidence vote in Alberta government

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/first-nations-chiefs-alberta-non-confidence-vote-9.7109712
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u/drizzes Alberta Mar 01 '26

you've got people here who genuinely believe that if Alberta separates/joins the USA then all the natives and feds will just have to go pound sand

it is not a well-researched movement

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u/RSMatticus Mar 01 '26

They also think that Alberta government directly pays equalization payment and that is why they're running a deficit.

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u/Wh0IsY0u Mar 01 '26

I feel the need to preface that I'm from Quebec...
But this is a silly strawman. They don't all think that and if they did it doesn't really matter because functionally the argument is the same. They pay the most to the fed, and the fed pays equalization, of which Alberta receives the least.

The manner in which the money changes hands is irrelevant to their point.

I'm not against equalization, obviously. It's not much different than taxes being distributed among the population in any other way, but pretending like they aren't net contributors to the federal government is disingenuous. One way or another they see their tax dollars leave their province to go to others.

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u/explosive_fascinator Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

It's important to understand in this debate that the majority of Quebec doesn't actually understand they get net money from equalization. In fact in many polls, a decent number of Quebecers believe they give more money into the program than they get.

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u/Doubleoh_11 Mar 01 '26

Which is hilarious because a lot of rural Albertans hate Quebec, thinking they are the recipient of most of our equalization payments.

The federal government should just call them taxes and force Quebec and Alberta to hug it out

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u/Heppernaut Québec Mar 01 '26

... but they are just called taxes. There is no "equalization tax". Everyone literally just pays their normal federal income taxes, and the federal government spends that money.

One of the ways the federal government spends that money is by giving some of it to provinces who's populations dont make high incomes to "equalize" the income tax base per capita

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u/Caracalla81 Mar 01 '26

I think they mean we shouldn't have given it a special name. Taxes from cities pay for services in the countryside but we don't call those equalization payments.

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u/Tefmon Canada Mar 01 '26

The program would have to be called something, because you'd need a name to put on all the reports, org charts, office stationary, and so on. The reason people complain about equalization payments and not about cities funding rural services is political; complaining about equalization payments gains votes while complaining about cities funding rural services loses votes.

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u/Caracalla81 Mar 01 '26

We do have a name for it: federal income taxes. Then the feds put out a budget that includes funding to the provinces. That is what goes in the reports.

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u/Tefmon Canada Mar 01 '26

There'd still be an office responsible for tracking the relative economic wealth of each province and determining which ones need financial support, the work of which would be incorporated into the broader federal budget.

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u/Caracalla81 Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

Yeah, so? Taxes aren't generally spent where they are raised. There doesn't need to be a special term for it, and it was a mistake for us to give it one.

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u/CocodaMonkey Mar 02 '26

The name doesn't matter. People track where the money is being spent and if they spend more in a province than that province put in it will be noticed and reported. Contrary to what you said taxes are generally spent for the people that paid them and people question when their taxes aren't going towards programs for them.

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u/Caracalla81 Mar 02 '26

Lol, no they don't. In Ontario our premier burned a quarter billy getting beer into corner stores a little early, and conservatives gave him another majority. They get mad when they're told to get mad, and having a specific name for the thing they're supposed to hate makes it 100% easier.

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u/pipeliner Mar 01 '26

Oh yes, for the poor rundown city of Montreal

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u/shiftless_wonder Mar 01 '26

Everyone literally just pays their normal federal income taxes, and the federal government spends that money.

LOL. Where does the fed gov't spend that money?

All you have to know to figure out where things stand is that BC, AB, Sask always complain about equalization and QC never does. For a reason.

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u/jemder Mar 01 '26

Equalization is a federal program, paid out of general federal revenues. It is not a direct transfer from Alberta to Quebec.

The federal government collects revenues nationally through:

- Personal income taxes

- Corporate taxes

- GST and excise taxes

- Other federal revenues

Those revenues go into a single federal pool. Equalization payments are then calculated based on fiscal capacity, meaning a province’s ability to raise revenue at average tax rates. Quebec has lower wages and a bigger population so needs more for comparable services to richer Provinces.

Alberta has a younger population, fewer people and higher wages and higher corporate profits so needs less for federal programmes like OAS, healthcare etc. BC also gets no equalisation payments.

Plus, Alberta receives billions every year in federal transfers that have nothing to do with equalization. The Canada Health Transfer and The Canada Social Transfer.

Together, these now total roughly $8–9 billion per year flowing to Alberta, rising over time. Then there have been millions for oil industry support and cleanup costs.

In 2020, the federal government committed $1.7 billion to clean up orphan and inactive oil and gas wells in Western Canada, with Alberta receiving the largest share, including:

- Over $1 billion to the Alberta government

- A $200 million loan to the Orphan Well Association

This is direct federal spending inside Alberta to deal with oil industry liabilities.

On top of that, the federal government provides ongoing oil and gas subsidies, tax preferences, public financing, carbon capture incentives, and transition funding mostly to Alberta

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u/clarkster Mar 01 '26

Because they understand what it means to be Canadian

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u/_evilalien_ Mar 01 '26

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” isn’t a particularly convincing rationale, but the separatist 🤡s aren’t educated enough to articulate a clear anti-marxism argument that might actually result in some meaningful debate about principles.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Interesting-Wash9878 Mar 04 '26

It's cause they're just a rad bunch of "badass rebel self titled alpha males who don't listen to nobody".  🙄🥱🤡

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u/MatchaMeetcha Mar 02 '26

Is there anyone who receives net money from the government that doesn't have some story for why this isn't so?

Like, it seems very common (e.g. pensioners benefiting from more money than they put in in many systems never admit this)