How Alberta pays Quebec’s bills: Charts that show Alberta picks up the tab - National Post

The nearly $240B Albertans have paid out as part of net federal fiscal transfers is more than one-and-a-half times as much as B.C. and Ontario combined

"In just 11 years, Albertans have paid out almost $240 billion to the rest of Canada.

That number is more than one-and-a-half times as much as B.C. and Ontario combined, whose taxpayers pitched in $54.6 billion and $97.9 billion respectively, the other two largest net contributors to the federal balance sheet.

The money is sent to Ottawa as part of net federal fiscal transfers — basically the residents of Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario pay more in federal taxes than they get back in federal programs and transfers — they are net positive contributors to the federal finances. And in Alberta’s case it has been doing that for a lot of years.

Other provinces are net negative contributors — they get more back in federal programs and transfers than they give in taxes. In Quebec’s case its net negative contributor was minus $171.3 billion from 2007-2018.

“Far more tax revenue comes to Ottawa from Albertans than what comes back to Alberta in terms of federal services and transfers.”

The Statistics Canada numbers also show Quebec benefitted most from the equalization program, raking in $107.5 billion. The program shuffles federal tax dollars to provinces with less money so all Canadians have comparable public services at comparable taxation levels.

How the statistics were gathered changed 11 years ago and so Statistics Canada does not have comparable numbers before that. However, a study by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy showed that from 1961 to 2017, Alberta’s net federal fiscal transfers amounted to more than $600 billion."

If Alberta left ... all that money that is taken from us would remain in Alberta for Albertans and their children. It truly is a no brainer. 

Read full article here.