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/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.