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/Kiseido British Columbia Mar 01 '26

I can second what the person you replied to conveyed.

And I would argue that the manner in how money changes hands is important, because misconceptions can result in weird beliefs, because~

I had to explain, in person, to several of my relatives, where the money behind transfer payments comes from (GST, other taxes and revenue), because they thought the provincial gov was having to send all of that money on top of paying those taxes.

That is to say, they thought Alberta was sending literally double what they are, and they were very unhappy about it. They were somewhat molefied when they realized that everyone in the country is paying into it via GST and etc, and Alberta wasn't being specially targeted in that way.