Conaeolos
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I think this point is also a point worth discussing. The reason the political and economic differences of the Maritimes doesn’t bother Alberta like Quebec is she is self-aware of her past benefits from the bigger provinces and recognizing’s that due to the urban/rural potential Quebec and Ontario should always be haves and are simply gaming the system; compared to, the Maritimes which is simply finding a footing.Like I said before regional representation would not benefit Alberta and the West, the East would still dominate 6-4, Alberta would actually have less power. The big winners would be the maritimes and they have different interests to the West.
Let’s break down the numbers. The Maritimes population is approximately half the size of Alberta with Alberta’s GDP per capital about 29% bigger. They collected $17,495 per citizen and spent $24,722 per citizen. That is a subsidy of 41% (compared to Quebec’s 9%) and costs the national pot approximately $16.6 billion or 9 billion in transfers. For that, the Maritimes saw a 7% percent raise in GDP per capita. Investment adjusted for size stills 36% more than Quebec and 19% more than Ontario. I would also note excluding oil and gas investments in Alberta their diversification investments still see 14% more investment than the Maritimes, or 55% more than Quebec, 37% more than Ontario with oil and gas 173% and 143% respectively.
If that doesn’t concern you let’s compare when Ontario is even being subsidized like in 2014. Alberta had 41% of the total national economic investment despite only having only 17% of the national GDP and 11% of the population. Quebec and Ontario taking an approximately 9% subsidy or $28.4 billion from debt and other provinces. In the same time they saw investment 36% of total economic national investment, Ontario being 23% and Quebec 13%. They were 63% of the population and 56% of the economy. This all despite they are both well located and well positioned to be the economic heart.
Again to put that in prospective that would mean Alberta was outperforming conservative economic viability at 289% that of the mean. Well Ontario and Quebec was preforming 44% worse than should be expected with all things level. Excluding only AB oil and gas, Alberta was still outperforming the mean by 48% will contributing an extra 23.5 billion (11%) of the federal tax revenue outside Alberta.
But is that their fair share?
How do you compare taxation when so many factors? I think tax burden is a good measure (taxes paid per capita / mean income): Quebec by that measure is 58%. Ontario 54%. Alberta 55%. By GDP per capita to better reflect difference in income distribution: 36%, 31% & 28%. Canadian average being 56% & 32%. Those extra % differences if applied would actually likely only bring in enough to cover the current 8-9 billion deficit or under. Alberta debt is only 120% of current revenues 18% GDP. Ontario's debt meanwhile is 2.2x current revenues and 42% of GDP. Quebec's debt is 1.5x current revenues, 1.9x without transfers, and 44% of GDP.