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Comment by graeme | Hacker News Reader

Albertans overrate this. Equalization took about 4.4% of Alberta’s provincial revenues in 2017-2018. And Alberta is tiny within Canada: 11.7% of population roughly.

So this is....not that big an amount? 4.4% of a fairly small budget relative to the total country.

Further, Alberta has had a large net inflow of young, productive workers from the rest of Canada. If there was no oil, these workers would mostly go work and be productive elsewhere, increasing local tax revenues.

Alberta did contribute wealth to the rest of the country. But Albertans tend to both overestimate this contribution and also ignore that they benefit from young workers trained and educated by provincial budgets elsewhere.

Source for equalization percent: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equalization_payments_in_Can...

(Alberta is not the only province to pay into equalization)

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> If there was no oil, these workers would mostly go work and be productive elsewhere, increasing local tax revenues.

Can you provide examples of equivalent work at the same pay level these young workers would engage in if not for O&G?

It wouldn’t be the same pay. But, they would be working, and providing taxes and local spending in their communities.

The maritime provinces have a very high average age in part because many workers left for alberta. This cuts the tax base.

That was my point. The workers do get a higher wage in Alberta, but most of this benefit is spend within Alberta or taxed there. Good for workers, good for Alberta....but not obviously a win for the rest of Canada.

And again, Alberta didn’t have to pay for 18 years of schooling and child health care for these workers: that was paid by the home province.

Majority of equalization goes directly to Quebec, very little goes to the maritimes.

Per-capita, more goes to the maritimes.

I don't know if out of work oil workers will move out of Alberta, but Alberta is famously full of Newfoundlanders who have left that high-unemployment province. (NL's fishing industry, once its primary employer, has been moribund for a few decades.)

Obviously, a COVID-19-triggered recession would not create an employment boom to replace oil jobs.

(FTR: I support the immediate shutdown of the tar sands, but we need a job replacement/retraining strategy...)

Alberta is the only province to pay into equalization every single year since they started it (except the very first year where they weren't allowed to). They've never got one equalization payment. Quebec gets billions every year. Why exactly?

Quit moving goalposts.

How is it moving goalposts? He says Alberta contributes very little. They've always contributed, never taken. On the other hand the second biggest economy in Canada (Quebec) is basically the opposite.

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