Equalize This

That priceless agreement between the federal and provincial governments of Canada that made us all so proud to be Canadian - equalization payments; tax money collected by the federal government and re-distributed to the 'have-not' provinces with the generous agreement of the 'have' provinces is in need of a hard revamp. It's past time that we recognize that some of those 'have-not' provinces are no longer in that category, and the reverse is also true.

Not only that, but each province's fortunes in the past decade, has changed back and forth.

The only provinces where the financial status appears static is Quebec, and that's unfortunate. But it's also well planned. Why bother making an effort to increase the provincial GDP when manna falls from the Treasury? Clearly, while the original idea was that across Confederation all Canadians should be able to anticipate a similar level of services from their provincial governments, and that was occasioned through the expedient of re-distribution of tax revenues, the original idea has grown creaky and out-of-date.

So out of date that the 'wealthier' provinces sometimes don't appear so 'wealthy' in terms of social services offered to their residents, while those provinces which continue to receive redistribution hand-outs are able to offer to their residents services unmatched by the supposedly wealthy ones. Obviously, it's time to re-think the entire effort.

True to human nature, even provinces can learn to love resting on their comfy cushions of dependency, rather than make an effort to exploit their opportunities to raise their own economic status through better management of their natural resources, or encouraging the competitive spirit and human ingenuity for earnings of which Canadians appear to have an abundance.

Ontario and Alberta alone are responsible for enriching the federal coffers by between $40 and $50 billion yearly which is then magnanimously divided among traditional recipient provinces. Who, accustomed to this largesse, make insufficient effort to increase their productivity. While at the same time offering a higher level of public services to their populations than those the donor provinces are able to achieve.

Ontario's per capita funding for education, health care and justice programs rank near the bottom of the provincial pack. Undergraduate tuition fees are the second-highest in the land, we have the second-lowest number of nurses per 100,000 residents, and the lowest number of regulated child-care spaces. We're robbing ourselves to pay for our accountability to other provinces whose residents are more entitled than our own.

For the first time in its history, Ontario last year received a share of equalization payments. High unemployment, loss of industrial jobs, the economic downturn, all helped to lower productivity in the province. Although things are improving, the province remains in debt and struggling with job creation. Equalization payments are slated to continue into 2012.

It's time the federal government and the provinces got together to discuss a rational and workable alteration in the current agreement. The squawking of Quebec and the Maritime Provinces will be instructive.