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Now granted this might be a bit of a touchy subject, but one must wonder if the East Coast of Canada is a drain on the resources of the government, and therefore people and country of Canada.

Below you will find some statistics from Stats Canada, I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.

Unemployment Rates by Province(Seasonally Adjusted)
PROVINCE Jan. 2005 Feb. 2005
Newfoundland 14.4 15.2
Prince Edward Island 10.5 10.2
Nova Scotia 8.7 9.8
New Brunswick 9.7 9.4
Quebec 8.4 8.0
Ontario 6.8 6.8
Manitoba 5.0 5.0
Saskatchewan 5.3 4.9
Alberta 4.4 4.2
British Columbia 6.2 7.0

http://www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/asp/gat ... 0#e_insure



First lets look at the Unemployment Rates Canada wide. It is amazing to me that in a country that is seeing an unprecidented labour shortage that anywhere in this country has an unemployment rate as high as 15%. The fact that the 2 Atlantic provinces saw an increase in unemployment, whlie the other two held steady is amazing don't you think?

Here's another one

Equalization Payments 1998-1999

Province Amount paid (millions of $) Amount ($) paid per capita (est.)

Newfoundland 1040 1910

Prince Edward Island 222 1627

Nova Scotia 1255 1342

New Brunswick 1077 1430

Quebec 4618 629

Ontario Nil Nil

Manitoba 960 842

Saskatchewan 407 397

Alberta Nil Nil

British Columbia Nil Nil

Source: Population estimates are for the year1998 and are from Statistics Canada. Found at ww3.ns.sympatico.ca/manbenn/charttwo.htm [accessed on March 24, 1999]

The data on payment is derived from Ministère des Finances du Canada, Le Budget 1999, Aide financière aux provinces et territoires, February 1999, 45p., pp. 36-37


Estimated payments in 2005-2006
Province Amount Paid inMillions of dollars ($) Amount paid per capita

Newfoundland 861 1,668

Prince Edward Island 277 1,996

Nova Scotia 1,344 1,432

New Brunswick 1,348 1,793

Quebec 4,798 632

Manitoba 1,601 1,359

Saskatchewan 82 83

British Columbia 590 139

Source: Department of Finance, Canada

http://www2.marianopolis.edu/quebechist ... ualize.htm


So what does this mean? Well summed up it means this, Atlantic Canada runs it's vaunted provincial social programs on the backs of those of us from Alberta and Ontario who had to go through hard scarafice, and face years of government cut backs so that we could go forward into the 21st Century debt free. It is amazing to me that while Quebec of all places recieves on average 4.7 billion a year in equalization payments they rank third lowest in the amount per capita. Where is the highest in the country? Atlantic Canada. The East Coast while reciving all most as much as Quebec combined as a region, gets to see at least more than double per capita, and in the case of Newfoundland more than triple, of the people of Quebec. This is unacceptable. Why is it that Atlantic Canada should be able to go on with inefficient government programs while the rest of the country, and Alberta and Ontario in specific, have been told time and again to tighten our belts for the good of the province is beyond me. It is time for Atlantic Canada to tighten thier belts, not only for the good of the specific provinces, in the hopes of one day balancing their budgets, but also for the good of the country we all love. The four provinces that lie on the East Coast of our country are a burden to the rest of tax paying Canada.

It is a further travisty that the new natural resource agreements brockered on the East Coast have been done so that the resource revenue of the Atlantic provinces does not impact thier transfer payment status. If this was to be taken into account for all provinces, Alberta and Ontario would recive interprovincial transfer payments! Is this fair or equal? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

While I belive in one country one future, it is up to all of us, not just those of us who have made sacrifices in the past to gain current prosperity, but ALL OF US to take the reigns of our country's destiny and do what nessesary in our own backyards to clean up the mess. Alberta did it, Ontario did it. So why is it that Atlantic Canada is so unwilling to do what is nessesary to make our country stronger ecomicly?

   

So Atlantic Canadians do nothing for the country eh. Take a look at the military and the disproportionate number of Atlantic Canadians who are a part of it. I guess in your opinion fighting and dying for your country is not contributing to it. Hey....does Canada really need a Navy, cause if it wasnt for the Easteners there would be none.

Edit....take a look at the Coast Gaurd aswell. Then goto the second biggest city in Nfld...Mt McMurray.....where the better part of Albertas money comes from....talk to the people there and you will most certainly notice a distinctly Eastern accent.

But don't mind me....Im just an Eastenern.

   

Well.. the problem with this Stats result is that it's a provincial percentage, and not a per national capita average. If you take the 14% unemployed from Newfoundland and apply it against the 6% unemployed in Ontario, I think that you would be surprised to find that PER NATIONAL CAPITA, there are more unemployed people in Ontario seeking assistance than there are in the East.

Now.. if I were a newfie, I"d be pissed off that Ontario (ottawa) was opening the borders to a bunch of immigrants and paying them the dole while they "establish" themselves in Toronto or Vancouver rather than using that money to create some jobs in the East.

   

Because easterners don't want to take up the jobs in Ontario and the West, we have to rely on immigration to fill up the labor shortages.

   

What labour shortages?

Get the Ontarions off the dole .. make them take a job . Easy as shittin' down a well and not half as dangerous. We shouldn't need to rely on any other country for labour as long as we hand out free meal tickets to citizens.

   

Easterners are taking lots of jobs in the west,lots are undercutting others on wages also so there is still unemployment but you dont really see it.Lots of Albertans working in the energy industry work seasonal and no sense going on EI if you just have to repay it again so I dont allways believe the stats where unemployment is concerned.

There's still folks who just wont work if they can live comfortable on the dole or assistance.They dont just come from the east,we have them in the west,also lots of natives dont work. Not saying their lazy either it's just their way of life that they grew up with.

   

Yea, we do. And as long as people don't get off their arse to go and work, we will. The fact is, immigants come here and want to work while we have people slacking their ass off on unemployment and blaming it on this and that. Fact is if they really wanted to work, they could get a job.

But you know, people prefer unemployment to working odd hours (Nights and Week-ends), they are all waiting for that perfect ''job''. And this is a fact, living in a region where unemployment was the highest in Canada for a long time (Saguenay) I know what I'm talking about.

   

I"m not against immigrants coming here who want to work, and working. I"m against the Canadian governement funding people from other countries (immigrants) until they are ready to work.

I"d rather see money going into creating jobs in the East than see ANY Canaidna on Welfare. Unemployment is different than welfare..

Canada needs some more stringent criteria for funding free wages..

Disability is another burr under my saddle..I know of more than one person in my community that lives on permanent disability while leading a normal active life? Too sick to work? Bullshit.. to lazy to work.. or the old "I'd rather do this than work shift work" talk you mentioned.

I also know a lot of Easterners who came to Ontario (and stayed) to get jobs. They don't undercut the rest of us.. they work for the same shitty wages other labourers make.

   

EI must be different in Alberta,I went on it in 2003 for a couple months when we all got laid off,it opened up lots of programs to get all my oilfeild safety tickets so it seemed like a good thing at the time. For the first time in many years I was due for a tax refund this year but just got a bill from revenue Canada for $1900.00(my refund)and was told it was a clawback clause for EI because I made over $39,000 last year. Sure glad I didnt go back on it the last two years when the weather had lots of oilpatch workers sitting at home for months. So their clawing back benefits I got in the year 2003. Bad enough the EI fund was used by the libs to pay off debt,time to get rid of it alltogether in my eyes.

   

Ah lovely subject, as an Easterner it's beyond offensive but hay a while back a MP from Alberta wanted to pack up unemployed NS males and force them to work in BC. Yep we are according to this nut job hard workers, so force us to "Work for big Oil", of course he was swatted down for the fly he was. Slave labour direct from NS, god bless Canada and it's stupid Politicians. What is that a troll going across the back forty Scrappy, surely is?

   

Slave labour? They weren't goingt o pay them the going rate for working the rigs?

   

Which Albertan MP said that and when?


I saw the undercutting and nepotism first hand on the pipeline.Same with up north in yellowknife in construction,Some feel if they work for a tad less then the next guy they will work longer,not many make the same wage as the guy doing the same job next to him.

The majority of pipeliners are allmost all easterners here,I used to get a kick out of how when a job was completed and everyone went home for a week or so how many actually came back,in their place was friends and family of the boss's. When phoned these guys at home said they never got a call to go back.Yet these big pipeline outfits claim people are their number 1 asset. Allmost all my friends work throughout the province in pipeline or oilpatch and I see this all the time now. Anyone ever wanted to do a class action for unfair labour practices in the energy sector would open up some eyes for sure.

   

Don't the pipeliners have a Union?

   

What going rate? Even some of the unionized outfits let them negotiate wages one on one with the employer.

   

Depends,still some unions in the northern section but south and central Alberta are open. When the operating engineers got too greedy the Christian labour association moved in(CLAC) and they are making some inroads but mostly it's non union.

   

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