The leadership race is heating up in Alberta as United Conservative Danielle Smith says if elected she will act to end equalization payments to Ottawa, which Albertans voted for. “Albertans voted to end equalization," Smith told the Western Standard. "If I am premier, we will begin to work with other provinces to get consensus to act on that mandate." Equalization is a federal transfer payment program that was first introduced in 1957 and is designed to reduce the differences in revenue-generating capacity across Canada. Since its inception in 1957, it has cost Alberta taxpayers roughly $67 billion dollars. Since equalization was created, Albertans have received less than 0.02% of all equalization payments. Currently Alberta does not qualify for equalization payments from the federal government. The last payment Alberta received was in 1965. However, if its resource revenues fell to zero and its non-resource fiscal capacity declined 12%, then it would start to receive adjustment payments. "The program was never meant to extract money from small provinces like Saskatchewan to subsidize large provinces like Quebec," Smith said. "After declaring itself a nation within a nation, it’s time for Quebec to stand on its own two feet and pay its own way." According to the Canadian Department of Finance, equalization aims to ensure Canadians in all provinces have access to “reasonably comparable public services at comparable levels of taxation.” Currently, five of the ten provinces receive payments: Quebec, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. For each of these provinces, equalization in 2021/22 will be the largest source of federal transfer payments and will represent over 10% of provincial revenue. "Albertans don’t want to underwrite a province that continues to violate the rights of its own citizens and is openly hostile to the development of our energy industry," Smith said in regards to Quebec receiving payments. "Enough is enough."
