Klein must share

Written By: jensonj
Date: 2005-08-30 09:09:37
<a href="/article/160937151-klein-must-share">Article Link</a>

However, Mr. Courchene said continued financial growth would prompt Canadians to flock to Alberta, weakening all the other provinces in the process.

"If Alberta spends all of it internally it either means zero taxes in Alberta or Cadillac versions of all public services, or variations of both.

"Who's about to live in Saskatchewan in those scenarios? You could just go to Alberta and be unemployed and probably get welfare that's a bit more than you could earn in Saskatchewan," Mr. Courchene said in a telephone interview yesterday.

"The real difficulty that Canada faces is that if Alberta starts spending this on infrastructure. It can have a health system, an education system, an environmental -- anything it wants -- that no other province can afford. If that happens, the Confederation is gone."

Mr. Courchene, a Sask- atchewan-raised Princeton graduate, is a former director of Queen's University's School of Policy Studies and is the author of some 250 books on Canadian policy issues. He said he had mixed feelings about initiating a discussion that could stir up divisive sentiment.

"This is the beginning of a 'let those eastern bastards freeze in hell' type of scenario," he said. "I guess someone has to say it."

The infamous National Energy Program, imposed by the Trudeau government when crude prices soared in 1980, was used as a mechanism to distribute wealth from Alberta to the rest of the country.

However, it chilled investment and remains a flashpoint for Western alienation.

On Wednesday, Alberta Premier Ralph Klein reminisced about the "ghost towns" that Edmonton and Calgary became in the wake of the NEP and warned Prime Minister Paul Martin against a similar redistribution strategy. Responding to reports that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said Alberta's wealth was becoming "the elephant in the room," Mr. Klein said Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Martin should "keep your hands off" his province's oil riches.

"If they are the great Canadians that they profess to be, then they'll leave us alone and respect the constitution," he told reporters.

Mr. Courchene agrees that the NEP was a "disaster," but says some sort of revenue-sharing mechanism is needed for the good of the country.

"Alberta's biggest fear should be that Ottawa put in another National Energy Program. But ... it came in because the system couldn't afford to handle the cost of it," he said. "If Alberta sits tight and keeps collecting all these revenues, Ottawa's going to step in. I don't think Ottawa can tolerate $7-billion a year. The pressures on the rest of the country will be too hard."

<a href="http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=5c32a294-57f9-4182-9a75-08562b9622b8">http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=5c32a294-57f9-4182-9a75-08562b9622b8</a>

[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on August 31, 2005]

Let's not forget lowest minimum wage and one of the highest poverty rates.

I love how, before the oil bonus, Alberta had no problem receiving wealth from other provinces. Now that they are doing well, they want it all to themselves.

Of course, if they did share, Klein might have to raise royalties collected on oil going to the USa, maybe even as high as US States charge their own country. Probably wouldn't go over well with his future employers eh?

highest poverty rate? Site your source.

Anon in Sask.

I never forgot Klein's remarks , when he said let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark, so give up on any notion that Alberta is about to share one red cent with we bastards in the East.

The author tries to get everyone worried about the country being endangered by a few dollars of royalties going to Alberta - this is how petty and small minded many Canadian commentators and 'journalists' are.

He neglected to mention that the Liberal Party has stashed away more cash for goodies in the next election than Alberta has recieved for higher oil prices.

He implies that future federal difficulties will be all Alberta's fault - as though Separatists and Liberals have nothing to do with it.

The author is jealous, ignorant or disengenuous.

All true and this is why I cannot trust any political party, the ones we have had as "government" are proven liars and crooks. That Liberal , Conservative, Bloc and NDP, they have been nothing more than self-serving pigs.

Reply to Anonymous Aug 30 11:31 MDT

I think you'll find that the author has always been a proponent of globalization, privitization, decentralization, devolving power to the "market". In which case he does not support a strong central government and probably is not a Liberal. Perhaps he now sees what can happen when these policies are pursued not only by private think tanks but by the various levels of government themselves. Devolving power must weaken the unity of the country, and creates cracks which are then open to manipulation. Watch what happens to healthcare in the next few years. However it seems that many Canadians are in favour of this process so no doubt it will continue. Perhaps other Canadians will sleep soundly knowing that the market is in charge, personally I have little faith.
As to Alberta sharing its wealth, that's up to Alberta, I doubt if the federal government is going to get involved.
Would the government of Alberta prefer to shovel "welfare dollars" into the pockets of the corporate bums or into the pockets of those that really need them?.

Frank

Alberta has never received equalization payments. No, in fact they're probably banking rolling you in some small way. That's assuming you're not in Alberta or Ontario the two only provinces in Canada who have some degree of self sufficiency.
Alberta has already given far more than they've received and they have the rights under the Charter to keep what's theirs.

Alberta did recieve equalization payments, and that is a fact.
You can certainly see where the loyalties are, and no wonder they express separation, because they obviously prefer to give their money and resources to corporate kings, than to the people of Canada!

---
If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?

Yes, how dare we transfer more money to the federal coffers per capita than any other province*. The difference being (and the point of the article), forcing Alberta to pay even more or invoking another 'energy' program will bring western alienation to an all time high. 
 
*source: <a href="http://www.fin.gc.ca/FEDPROV/images/eqpe.gif">http://www.fin.gc.ca/FEDPROV/images/eqpe.gif</a> 
 
Guess we don't want it all to ourselves, eh? So, I suppose if we sock it away for a rainy day, you won't hold a grudge, right? 
--- "If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it." Winston Churchill

Once again, I must ask the question - If it were Quebec that had the oil, would you be demanding that *they* share the wealth?

Didn't think so.

Equalisation is not a measure of "self-sufficiency"

It is about guaranteeing that all Canadians, regardless of province, are given the opportunity to enjoy a standard of living similar to the wealthiest areas in this country.

Of all the misspent funds at every level of government, I wonder, who are these types that deride the notion that the wealth should not be re-invested throughout the country?

So what if Alberta has "given more than it recieved"? Ontario has never recieved a transfer payment and I couldn't care less because if that wealth can help fishermen in Newfoundland or farmers in Sakatchewan live equally well as others in Ontario, I'd be happy. Canada as a whole should be better for it.

The real question is why the money is ballooning at the provincial level and not at the Federal or local level. I know we have a Federal surplus as well -- but we also have a massive debt that keeps countless Japanese bankers snuggled up in castles from our annual interest payments. Why does anybody think that the fruits of the land "belong" to them when they did nothing to put them there. Alberta is an invention by the Canadian nation, put there as a way to facilitate the colonization of the prairies. This has nothing to do with Western alienation, Western ingenuity, or la la la. This is a case of environmental exploitation with greedy capitalists rushing over each other trying to get a piece of the earth's pie. How about some of that money going to cleaning up the environmental disaster caused by centuries of environmental exploitation across Canada? How about some of that money going to the cleaning up the cultural disaster caused by centuries of cultural exploitation that pushed first nations out of wealth's way across Canada?

Has anybody read The Hobbit? There's a scene where the dwarves and Bilbo finally get to the dragon's gold only to almost spoil it all by turning on each other with vicious savagery.

Canada's land is being plundered, we are getting a tiny sliver of the profits, and we are turning on each other even before coming up with a strategy or a plan or a vision. It's pathetic.

As an environmentalist, I would love to see the price of oil and gas triple, quadruple, and beyond. I would love to see Alberta join forces with BC and Ontario and the Feds to add an extra $10 per gallon, or some such penatly to all oil and gas or energy going to the States. Divvy the extra profits up as you will (you know where I want it spent). It's not like the customer's going anywhere.

G

I need to clarify something. In my last comment I referred to "the author" meaning Thomas Courchene and not Len Greenberg of CanWest News Service who wrote the newspaper article.

Frank