Alberta and 'equalization'

Because of the primarily Alberta audience and the Alberta focus of the conference, examples of the implications for Alberta predominate. [...] The program has been in place since 1957 and the purpose of equalization became part of the Constitution in 1982.5 How Equalization Works The fundamental determinant of Equalization payments is straightforward. [...] The Equalization payments raise the fiscal capacities of the qualifying provinces to a standard of about $7,000 per capita. [...] Note that the provinces are ordered there with the Equalization receiving provinces on the left and the non-recipient provinces on 11 Comparisons of provincial expenditures and taxes are (for the most part) based the Financial Management Series as reported in Statistics Canada’s CANSIM II data base. [...] Considering the contributions over 2004 to 2008, over 60 percent come from the two largest provinces -- 41.6 percent come from Ontario and 19.0 percent from Quebec.15 The next largest 15 The period examined ends at 2008 as that is the latest year for which the sources of federal revenues are reported in the Provincial Economic Accounts.