Imagine That Now...

Here's old workhorse, cash-cow Ontario being chided by none oher than Quebec's intergovernmental affairs minister, Benoit Pelletier. Whyfor? Well, for emulating the Province of Quebec in a sense. You know how it is with Quebec and Quebecers, never quite satisfied, never receive adequate homage from the rest of us, never in sufficient receipt of transfer payments and jealously guarding its image as a have-not province to ensure it continues receiving equalization payments.

To be fair, none of the provinces are happy with the current state of transfer payments, a position the federal government knows and understands and has agreed to do something about. And which Ontario has been energetically front and foremost in pushing for. There are some irregularities still to be ironed out where provinces which have lately come into their own energy bonanzas insist that these new revenue sources be neutralized so as not to impact on their equalization pay-outs but that's another story.

The feds agree with the provinces; they need more funds for vital infrastructure and they're not averse to some kind of agreement where they'll cut back taxes and the provicnes can take up the slack to that same amount. The taxpayer won't be affected but the provinces' bottom line will be. The "fiscal imbalance" may be solved by a new device called "tax-point transfers"; a reduction for example in the GST may permit the provinces to raise their own sales taxes, a nice little balanced transfer with no noticeable taxpayer impact.

Quebec is in complete accord with the rest of the provinces, particularly Ontario's agitating for an increased transfer of social programme and infrastructure funding, because this will be an even-handed solution to a problem currently, in its under-funding detrimental to all. This is the kind of complaint to the federal government that has Mr. Pelletier's approval; he terms it a "legitimate" grievance.

It's that other, ugly little complaint coming from Ontario that has Quebec huffing and puffing and declaring that Ontario has a "duty to Canada". Equalization payments, shifting tax-derived monies from "have" provinces to "have-not" provinces through a complex formula meant to ensure that all provinces are able to privide public social programmes of at least equal quality to their citizens is a Canadian touchstone of social progress. It's enshrined in the Constitution.

So Benoit Pelletier claims that the Ontario government has a need to understand the economic benefits that Ontario, recognized as the country's financial engine, gains from "achieving political stability" in the country. What's that? Political stability? Can we construe that as a subtle form of blackmail? In satisfying Quebec's omniverous appetite for ever more financial support from the rest of Canada (for the most part, the Province of Ontario, the only province these payments have always been exacted from) we can be guaranteed that Quebec will cease and desist in its endless dissatisfied agitating for one nanosecond...?

Sounds like a pretty raw deal for Ontarians and a bloody fine one for Quebecers. Sounds like the status quo - only more so. Given the indisputable fact that Quebecers pay substantially less for hydro, for university tuition, for childcare services under Quebec's very "progressive" social programmes than al other provinces, and on the backs of Ontario taxpayers I'd have to opine, as one of those Ontario taxpayers who has to pay a monthly "tax" for health services that Quebecers do not, and unlike Quebecers there is no free dental service here in Ontario either, this beggaring of the Ontario taxpayer for the benefit of Quebecers goes beyond reasonable expectations.

"The fact is (Ontario's government) have a responsibility in regards to their other partners and that responsibility is, I would say, mainly represented by the principle of equalization" says Mr. Pelletier. Who handily and casually overlooks that the imperative of the provincial government of Ontario is its responsibility to its own tax-payers, not primarily and foremost to those of the Province of Quebec.

This is an utterly absurd and illogical premise - whose lopsidedness in enriching a so-called have-not province beyond the personal expectations of the tax-payers of the 'have' province - is a breach of fairness and trust.