An entire chapter at the back of Tuesday’s Ontario budget, once you made it past the many references to Liberal gains in health, education and health and education, was devoted to federal-provincial relations.
The upshot of the argument put forth by Premier Dalton McGuinty and Dwight Duncan, his Finance Minister, is that Ottawa was wrong to unilaterally announce changes to the Canada Health Transfer, even though the changes are post-dated until years from now, and that Ontario specifically has been turned into a pauper of the federation due to an equalization plan that takes its money and spreads it elsewhere.
There were bar charts and everything: Ontario is fifth among the provinces in the ability to generate per-capita revenue, but after federal transfers are included the province drops all the way to ninth, ahead only of P.E.I. P.E.I.!
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Stinson: Ontario’s spending mismanagement is a problem for the entire country, says Jim Flaherty,
Between Quebec and Ontario the “chicken in every pot” is coming to an end. The West does not owe them a lifestyle they cannot afford. Cheers.