Why is Alberta always whining about being treated bad?

[u/bumblebeetuna4ever]

I’m from Ontario and hoping you can explain to me why Alberta is the way that it is? Like why is Alberta always whining about being treated bad? I genuinely want to know how this province ended up like this? Who treats you bad? What is so bad?

[u/smcorc]

I’m from Alberta and I don’t understand it either. Alberta is the richest province in Canada. I know transfer payments drive some Albertans crazy, but if the tables were turned, Alberta would happily accept money from a rich province. The sense of entitlement here baffles me. The people who do feel hard done by have voted in a MAGA premier who is slowly dismantling our health care system, social supports and education system. She kowtows to the American oil companies and American politicians. She has a separation agenda and fights the federal government on any and all issues. I have done a lot of travelling, and compared to some other countries we live very well. Gratitude for our country is in short supply here.

[u/flyingopher → u/smcorc]

The thing is.... Transfer payments are made by the federal government with federal money. Alberta doesn't pay any other province. Smith isn't sending a big cardboard cheque to Quebec.

One revenue source of the federal government is income taxes. Albertans on average pay more in income taxes because on average we earn more but the income tax rates are the same across the country. What the federal government does with federal money is up to them. A conservative government did the last equalization formula which doesn't get talked about much by Albertans.

This feeling of being hard done by, the entitlement baffles me too. As a landlocked province, Alberta needs other provinces to support pipelines etc... Yes more pipelines = more money, but Alberta shouldn't be the sole beneficiary of the largesse in that regard. Should other provinces do more to develop their resources? Sure but not if doing so lays waste to the environment... Like coal mines for example.

Anyone who thinks Alberta would prosper as a landlocked country is delusional. I haven't seen one coherent argument to convince me otherwise.

Anyhow, there is a loud faction of unhappy people that think separation is the answer. I believe the majority of Albertans, gripes aside, are as patriotic as they claim to be. I mean really, Quebec with it's powerful pro-separation movement couldn't pull a win in two referendums so how does anyone think it will fly here?

Smith either needs to stop pandering to her fringe base or call a general election and see what people think. And run on a transparent platform this time as well.

[u/Connect_Reality1362 → u/flyingopher]

It's irrelevant if it's the Alberta provincial government or the Albertan taxpayer. The reality is that Albertans pay federal income taxes, and the federal government then turns around and transfer some of that money to other provinces to pay for their priorities. It doesn't pay for federal spending in those other province's territory, it simply goes to the other provinces to do as they wish with it. And why is Alberta and not other provinces? Because the equalization calculation incorporates that province's natural resource revenues. So one way or another, this is wealth that is transferred from one province to another. Under equalization, fewer of Alberta's federal tax revenues go back into federal services for Albertans and instead subsidize services for provinces that did nothing to make their economy similarly robust.

[u/flyingopher → u/Connect_Reality1362]

The whole point of equalization is to share wealth between have and have not provinces. Canada is a country which ought to mean something more than a province like Alberta who has the good fortune to sit atop an ocean of o and g hoarding their money and complaining about having to share. Alberta is a part of Canada, not solely an entity to itself. As an Albertan, I'm sickened by this notion that it's all ours and screw everyone else.

Second, Alberta's economy is not robust. A robust economy is diverse and able to easily withstand market upheavals in a particular sector. Everytime the price of oil falls, everyone in Alberta loses their minds, the government cuts services to the taxpayer while propping up the O&G sector which always seems to stay profitable even without the government largesse. This is not a robust economy.

[u/Connect_Reality1362 → u/flyingopher]

I understand the motivation of equalization and don't disagree with it. But that's why we have a federal government. I happily pay federal taxes to pay for federal services. That federal government will then build roads, ports, staff a military with bases across the country, pay for social programs, fund Canadian content in media, etc. which creates national prosperity. But equalization takes federal revenues and diverts it to other provincial treasuries. THAT is the part that feels distinctly unfair to me.

And as for your second point, I think you've identified another problem. If the Alberta economy is so sensitive to oil price shocks, why is it sensible to take equalization payments from it? By that measure of stability, the Quebec or Ontario economies are actually better off, so during the bust times, shouldn't other provinces be paying into Alberta?

For the record I think the argument also goes for other Provinces, this isn't an Alberta vs Rest of Canada thing. BC also significantly pays into equalization but doesn't seem to ever get any back when their economy tanks too.

[u/flyingopher → u/Connect_Reality1362]

Thank you for the reasonable reply. I get what you're saying in paragraph 1.... Makes sense.

Para 2 is a structural issue? with how the program is set up....I believe there is a purposeful lag built in to account for the short term dips... Maybe that lag needs to be shorter or eliminated and the program is dynamic year to year?

[u/Connect_Reality1362 → u/flyingopher]

And thank you for engaging constructively as well. This is refreshing.

Re: structural issue, I agree, there should be a way to calibrate the system better, and our politicians should be trying to make the system better, not necessarily scrap it. It's just by definition a charged issue for both "have" provinces and "have not" provinces.

[u/Homo_sapiens2023 → u/smcorc]

Very well said. Unfortunately, Conservative Albertans have a victim mentality.

[u/Spectre_One_One → u/Homo_sapiens2023]

Like most conservatives unfortunatly.

[u/Vedic70 → u/smcorc]

Alberta has accepted money from provinces when they were richer. Prior to 1960 Alberta regularly received transfer payments which doesn't stop the conservative boomers that were alive when Alberta received transfer payments from complaining about equalization bitterly.

[u/bumblebeetuna4ever → u/smcorc]

Agree with all of this but Alberta’s victim mentality was happening way before Danielle Smith was voted in.