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Until the 2009–2010 fiscal year, Ontario was the only province to have never received equalization payments. In 2009–2010, due to the global Great Recession, Ontario began to receive equalization payments [16] with its first payment amounting to $347-million. [53] The equalization formula is "based on a three-year average of economic growth".
Successive Alberta governments and popular opinion in the province have decried the equalization formula, noting that Alberta has not received funding under the equalization program since 1965. [7] The current equalization formula was implemented shortly after Stephen Harper 's Conservative Party of Canada formed a minority government after the ...
Until the 2009–2010 fiscal year, Ontario was the only province to have never received equalization payments; in 2009-2010 Ontario received 347 million dollars, [7] while Newfoundland, which has received payments since the program's creation, is now a so-called "have" province, and is now a net contributor and does not receive payments.
Equalization payments do not, technically, involve wealthy provinces making payments to poor provinces, although in practice this is what happens, via the federal treasury. As an example, a wealthy citizen in New Brunswick, a so-called "have not" province, pays more into equalization than a poorer citizen in Alberta, a so-called "have" province.
Alberta separatism comes from the belief that many Albertans hold that they are culturally and economically distinct from the rest of Canada, particularly Central Canada and Eastern Canada, because of economic imbalances whereby Alberta is a net over-contributor to the system of equalization payments in Canada. [6]
Alberta and Saskatchewan have made other efforts to distance themselves from Ottawa. Both have frequently criticized the equalization payment scheme as unfair. In his call for "A New Deal with Canada", Moe has signaled a desire for more control over taxation and immigration, and Saskatchewan has introduced plans to create a provincial police force.
However, "federal spending in Alberta" is not the same as equalization, which is a transfer of funds from the federal government to the provincial government. For 2020, equalization payments were scheduled before the year began, and won't change once the year begun. Alberta's equalization for 2020 is 0.
All Alberta elections have resulted in a majority government, a trend unseen in any other Canadian province. (But frequently the most popular party was the choice of less than half the voters.) Even with crossing the floor or by-elections, Alberta has never had a minority government. Each government has held a majority of seats in the Legislature.