25 Replies to “Response to Trump’s Keystone XL appeal”

  1. Saskatchewan should join with Alberta in refusing to remit transfer payments, using the money instead to bankroll energy projects here. Quebec sure likes our money but doesn’t want our oil (or do they?). Let them pay the full cost of their hydroelectric power and factor the revenues from it into the equalization formula. And thank you Bronwynw Eyre for another well-informed column.

    1. Paul

      “Saskatchewan should join with Alberta in refusing to remit transfer payments …”

      Help me out here. To which transfer payments are you referring? And remit to whom?

    2. Help me out folks. What power does the federal government have to force Alberta and Saskatchewan to make equalization payments?

      1. they have zero power to do so. Scott Moe and every previous Premier could have just told the feds to ‘Eff Off’ and there is absolutely nothing that the feds would have done in response.

        Unfortunately all levels of government are so corrupt that they don’t want to piss off that hand that secretly lines all the fascist pockets.

      2. The Alberta and Saskatchewan governments don’t make equalization payments.

        The feds collect taxes (income tax and others) from Alberta and Saskatchewan residents and businesses. They then spend that money. Some of which is distributed to other provinces as equalization payments.

        When the feds collect federal income taxes they also collect Alberta income taxes and remit the Alberta income tax back to the Alberta government. I presume the same is done for Saskatchewan.

        To my knowledge only Quebec collects income taxes directly. And I think they collect both Quebec and federal income tax, remitting the federal portion to Ottawa.

        1. Thanks Joe. The previous commenters were a reminder of why we have had 10 years of Liberal government.

          1. “That’s quite the scam Quebec has.”

            It really is…especially the part where they don’t have their hydro-electricity profits counted as income for the purposes of ‘equalization’.

        3. “The Alberta and Saskatchewan governments don’t make equalization payments.

          The feds collect taxes (income tax and others) from Alberta and Saskatchewan residents and businesses. They then spend that money. Some of which is distributed to other provinces as equalization payments. ”

          I’ve read this particular dodge before. The provinces may not make payments to the federal government that are called ‘equalization’, but it amounts to the *very same thing*: money taken from the ‘have’ provinces is then given to the ‘have not’ provinces. Split hairs if you like, and call it whatever you want, but the federal government takes Alberta and Saskatchewan’s money and gives it to Quebec (and others).

          1. Fred

            “I’ve read this Dodge before”

            I’m not approving equalization.

            Some people believe Alberta and Saskatchewan should just stop sending money to Ottawa. The Alberta and Saskatchewan governments can’t stop the feds collecting taxes. The citizens of Alberta and Saskatchewan don’t have enough votes to stop it either.

            Separation would stop it, but there seems to be insufficient appetite for that.

            There is however another option. Elect Carney and Jagmeet, and they’ll shut down all of, or enough of the oil industry by 2035, that Alberta and Saskatchewan will no longer be have provinces. I’m not recommending that option.

            Fred, if you, or anyone else has ideas on how to dismantle equalization, I’d love to hear them.

    3. Ottawa gets the money from General Revenue., which comes from income taxes, carbon taxes, GST/HST, excise taxes and duties, etc. It overcharges so that it can turn around and dole out money to its friends – i.e. Quebec, the Maritimes and Ontario; sometimes Manitoba and BC. Essentially TRANSFERRING wealth from producers to parasites. The Communist “equality of outcome” model.

  2. This nation of kleptocracy is only possible with federal income tax.
    Destroy this state.

    If some “public expenditures” are required..
    Roads,bridges,water and sewer..
    Collect tax locally.

    If State/Province administration is worthwhile..
    Let Local Governments contribute toward it.

    And If Federal Services are to be performed,let the Provinces contribute.

    Let no tax contribution exceed 10%.
    Invert the pyramid of theft,starve the kleptocracy.
    For what we are doing has failed.

    A society can afford to have 9 people supporting 1 non productive,if the work of that non productive person allows the 9 to be more productive.
    And right there is the means of judging the worth of “Public Services”.
    This makes the “non productive” work beneficial to society..
    From this we evolved “Government”
    Which “More of” did not produce better results.
    6 citizens working to support 4 destructive parasites..
    Feels so good…Can Ahh Duh.
    A 6 decades experiment ,that has run its course.
    When The West steps away,will we continue all the failed tropes that broke the promise of Canada?
    The pockets of socialism will shrink dramatically if we cancel Welfare.
    No “Free Stuff”= So many fewer freeloaders.
    Victimhood is a self perpetuating sickness.

  4. “In August 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt forced Winston Churchill to sign the Atlantic charter as a condition for US support of the Allied effort in World War II. The Charter, a heartening emblem of American idealism, required the European allies to relinquish their colonies, following the war. For two centuries unimpeded access to the colonized world rich natural resources had been the principal source of European wealth. The Atlantic charter and national liberation movements in the 50s and 60s dismantled the traditional colonial model in Africa.”

    It is imperative that western Canada choose this course in order to free itself from the “colonial” chains that we have been subjected to for far far too long. The end of welfare payments from the west to the east must end if our children are to survive.

    ALL segments of the western Canadian community would benefit by the prosperity of the region.

    Perhaps Trump sees western Canadians as robbed and suppressed just like Roosevelt saw the British colonies.

    If you have the power to take, why create?

    The plundering of western resources by upper and lower Kanada has corrupted Ontario and Quebec like every welfare benefit does. It stifles their potential …as well as it has the wests. It has allowed them to govern based on theories rather than realities.
    PePe’s scramble to embrace “team Kanada” talking points tells me everything I need to know.

    I want a new country.

  6. So Trump said that the US doesn’t need our oil, and he put a 10% tariff on it.

    But now he wants the Keystone XL pipeline built so the US can get more Canadian oil.

    Make up your mind, Donald.

    1. Yeah … FAIR … EVEN … RECIPROCAL Trade is so horrible that Canadian Leadership will fight to the death to keep their unfair advantages. Yeah, who wouldn’t want a huge handicap to even the score … Right?

    2. Need and want are not the same. They don’t need our oil so much that they can’t do without it because they can extract more of their own or buy it from others. They want to buy ours so long as it is easier and/or cheaper than either or both of those two alternatives.

      They are our only immediate neighbour, a huge market relative easy to access for other exports, and a ally critical to our security so it is good business to sell to them on terms somewhat better than to others. But it is better business to also (not instead) develop infrastructure to sell to other markets.

  7. It makes clear that Trump believes western Canada has far more to offer than the rest of the nation. The feeling seems to be reciprocal.

  8. I LOVE the fact that Trump says … “we don’t need Canadian timber” … we’ve got our own … and our EPA is under new ownership. Seriously Canada … your idiot politicians need to do some serious soul-searching … before your patriotic cries; “MADE in Canada” becomes plaintive wailing; “MAID in Canada”. You’re committing economic suicide. For what? To prove Orangemanbad? Canada … your idiot politicians need new leadership … a true CHANGE of leadership

  9. I have a slight disagreement with Eyre when she says “Meanwhile Pierre Poilièvre, who needs Ontario and Quebec votes”
    If the CPC does very well in Quebec they will get 15 of 78 seats. If they do poorly they will get 10 seats. The CPC doesn’t need to suck up to Quebec as an honest Equalization program would get more votes in the ROC than it would lose in Quebec.
    Speaking of Equalization, I am part of the problem. Educated in Eastern (not central) Canada I spent most of my working life as an ATM for the government in the west before retiring in the east. Should I have lower end of life services that I would get if I had remained in Alberta?
    I also ask why the country should go in hock to bribe Quebec to stay which is what the present system encourages. Eastern premiers would be better off supporting a fair discussion of western concerns rather than supporting the status quo. My two cents.
    (hint: voting liberal has made the east the poorest jurisdiction north of Mexico. If the CPC put some thought into it and offered a better way forward they could turn many voters.)

    1. I appreciate your frankness but you made a choice to move back where services are inferior from where you were residing. My own life is much the same. I choose to live out in the buckbrush away from a decent hospital and all health services for that matter. That’s my choice. No entitlements.

      If Canada ever joined the US federal income taxes would be going to Washington. The maritimes would look like the Mississippi delta. Poor.

      What exactly should the CPC offer east coasters that they don’t offer in TROC? What enticement? More transfer payments? I’d like to know.

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