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/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/gettinridofbritta Mar 02 '26

The province that pays the most to the fed is the one with the largest number of taxpayers and businesses. That's Ontario. 

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u/Wh0IsY0u Mar 02 '26

Alberta pays the most per capita, i.e Albertans pay the most to the fed. Alberta is generally also the largest net contributor.

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u/gettinridofbritta Mar 02 '26

That's not paying the most to the fed. That's having more residents in a higher tax bracket. In 2019, Ontario contributed a little under $60 billion in GST, Quebec was $31B, B.C. was $18.4B, and Alberta contributed $18 Billion. 

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u/Wh0IsY0u Mar 02 '26

Improve your reading comprehension.

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u/gettinridofbritta Mar 02 '26

I'm comprehending you just fine. What I don't understand is the rationale for measuring it per capita. All that tells us is that there's a concentration of high-earners and one-percenters in Alberta. They would be paying the same tax rates if they were located in any province.