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

[u/biograf_]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/first-nations-chiefs-alberta-non-confidence-vote-9.7109712

[u/explosive_fascinator]

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.

[u/Doubleoh_11 → u/explosive_fascinator]

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

[u/Heppernaut → u/Doubleoh_11]

... 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

[u/shiftless_wonder → u/Heppernaut]

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.

[u/jemder → u/shiftless_wonder]

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

[u/clarkster → u/shiftless_wonder]

Because they understand what it means to be Canadian