As we put away our Canadian flags for another year following Canada Day celebrations, now is an apt time to take a better look at the raw deal Alberta gets in Confederation and at some of the options available to fix that unfairness, while standing on guard for a united country.
For background, in just 12 years — from 2007 to 2018, inclusive — Alberta contributed $239.847 billion net payments to the rest of Canada. It’s important to point out this occurred during two significant economic downturns. Alberta, despite our difficulties, is the largest net contributor to Confederation on a per capita basis — by far — about $5,000 for every man, woman and child annually.
Albertans already know about the federal Liberal government’s numerous attacks against this province — the unilateral cancellation by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the already-approved Northern Gateway Pipeline; the changing of ruleson Energy East well into the process leading to its cancellation; and the introduction of bills C-69 and C-48 which create the perverse scenario of bans on tankers that carry Alberta oil products along Canada’s west coast, while allowing Saudi oil to travel unhindered along our east coast and up the St. Lawrence River.
On the one hand, we have the Wexit Canada party — now led by Jay Hill, the highly credible former whip and House leader in Stephen Harper’s federal Conservative government.
Thankfully, on the other hand, we have staunch federalists, like most Albertans and Premier Jason Kenney, who favour finding ways to alleviate the justifiable frustrations of Albertans by putting pressure on Ottawa to make Confederation work more fairly for Alberta through recommendations made in the Fair Deal panel report, which was released last month.
Since then, many people have been wondering whether establishing an Alberta Pension Plan is a good idea.
[Interesting Read]
