It’s time I gave Danielle Smith some credit: she certainly knows how to create a distraction. Her recent efforts to empower and enable Alberta’s separatist movement have consumed so much of the political and media oxygen in the province that it’s hard to talk about her government’s various scandals and self-inflicted wounds, from the ongoing collapse of the healthcare system to the deliberate kneecapping of the province’s renewable energy sector.
The bad news here, at least for the separatists she’s given so much hope lately, is that the idea of an independent Alberta remains as unpopular as ever. A recent Janet Brown poll of Albertans conducted for CBC Calgary shows support for separatism remains stuck around 30 per cent, with the biggest recent change actually being a surge in self-reported attachment to Canada.
The idea that Alberta is being deliberately screwed over by Ottawa, on the other hand, finds far more favour. In a May 13 press conference — one where he refused to publicly condemn Alberta’s separatists — Pierre Poilievre told reporters that Albertans have “a lot of legitimate grievances,” ones that revolve almost entirely around the treatment of the oil and gas industry. “Let’s be blunt,” he said. “Canada’s biggest industry … largely situated in Alberta, has been under attack for the last decade.”
It's worth noting that said “attack” includes the construction of the first two pipelines to Pacific tidewater in 70 years, one of which was paid for by Canadian taxpayers. Said “attack” has also resulted in massive production growth and record profits for Canada’s oil and gas industry. Most industries would probably kill to be “attacked” like this.
Even so, this willful misrepresentation of the relationship between Ottawa and Alberta has become a shared reflex among Canada’s Conservative political and pundit class. In a recent Financial Post column, Diane Francis — who once argued for an American “merger” with Canada — hit all the familiar talking points. “None of these complaints are new,” she wrote, “but now they are potentially nation-busting. Albertans are not a bunch of whiny separatists, but have legitimate grievances that deserve respect and remedy.”
Do they, though?
Francis highlights Ottawa’s “unfair equalization system,” a system that nine years of a Stephen Harper-led Conservative government declined to change. It’s true that Albertans pay more in federal taxes on a per-capita basis than other provinces, a reality owing entirely to the fact that they make more money than people in other provinces. They pay the same tax rates as other Canadians, and would continue to even if the entire equalization program was eliminated tomorrow.
Francis also highlights the “unfair seat distributions in the House of Commons,” which she says “favours Liberal-voting provinces at the expense of the West.” Alas, this isn’t actually true. After the most recent electoral redistribution process, one that saw three seats added in Alberta, the most under-represented province in parliament in terms of the ratio of seats to population is actually Ontario. Two of the more over-represented provinces, meanwhile, are Saskatchewan — not exactly a Liberal stronghold — and Manitoba.
But these are mere appetizers to the main course on Alberta’s menu of grievances: the treatment of the oil and gas industry. To hear Francis and others tell it, the current Liberal government has single-handedly stood between the province and its rightful status as a global oil and gas superpower.
The facts, as much as they even matter to grievance-hungry Albertans, don’t support their feelings. As I’ve written before, previous federal governments — and, specifically, Liberal federal governments — have played a key role in helping Alberta’s oil and gas industry. The feds directly funded some of the earliest oilsands ventures, and stepped in to backstop them when private sector partners pulled out. It changed the tax treatment of oilsands projects to make them more economically viable, which helped precipitate the massive boom in the early 2000s that many Albertans remember fondly. And yes, it got the Trans Mountain pipeline built in the face of opposition from provincial and local governments in British Columbia.
Even the dreaded National Energy Program would have been a boon to the oil sands if it hadn’t been killed by Brian Mulroney’s government. Yes, it would have built the very east-west pipelines that so many Conservatives have spent years pining for lately. But it also would have paid a premium for oilsands crude that would have generated hundreds of billions in extra revenue for the industry according to University of Alberta economist Andrew Leach.
Most of the angst in Alberta today revolves around Ottawa’s ongoing attempts to reduce carbon pollution, involving varying proportions of carrots and sticks. Both the oil and gas industry and the Alberta government have committed to the same carbon neutrality targets, which makes their reflexive opposition to any policies aimed at achieving that goal deeply telling. But even here, and maybe especially here, the dreaded federal government isn’t trying to “kill” the industry. If anything, it’s trying to save it from itself.
That’s because it’s easy to imagine a post-Trump future in which demand for oil has begun to decline and the carbon intensity of fossil fuel exports is penalized [or, taken into account] by importers (like, say, the ones in Europe). If Canada’s oil producers don’t start preparing for the net-zero world they claim they’re committed to building, they’re either going to be left behind or forced to eat an ever-larger discount on their barrels. And while Alberta’s government has only offered a 12 per cent tax credit on carbon capture and storage projects, Ottawa is offering 50 to 60 per cent right now. Which one is the problem again?
Rather than retreating from these facts, the defenders of Canadian unity need to help Albertans better understand them. The more they cater to this jaundiced view of confederation, one in which Alberta is a perpetual victim, the more they undermine its durability. Danielle Smith and her fellow separatist enablers are telling Albertans one version of the story. It’s time for the rest of us to tell them the truth before support for separation actually starts to grow.
Comments
Mr. Nenshi will finally get some press once the byelections are done. Took her long enough. PM Carney should make pp wait that long. So nice not hearing him daily have to say. How about an update on how the healthcare scandal and her hand in it is going. So quiet while talking about the separtism baloney. Jim Standford has a lot to say about Alberta's phoney grievances also. Thankfully there are some out there that see clearly.
https://nabig.mcmaster.ca/people/stanford-jim/@@display-file/person_cvf…
https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/lets-drop-the-phoney-alberta-v…
All Canadians need to speak up against the disinformation campaign of Danielle Smith and
like minded supporters, including Pierre Poilievre, that is fostering separatist sentiments in Alberta.
If PM Carney is smart, he will ignore the noise in Alberta.
Let's be clear. There is no satisfying Alberta's oil mafia.
Canada's O&G industry is posting record profits on record production. A fact never acknowledged by Premier Smith. In her world, facts don't matter.
Record profits on record production are not enough. The industry's appetite for profits and power is insatiable. No restraints — or semblance of restraints — can be tolerated. No climate policy is acceptable.
Feeding the beast only swells its appetite.
Alberta's largely foreign-owned O&G industry has no loyalty to Alberta or Albertans — to Canada or to Canadians. Its sole loyalty is to shareholders, mostly U.S.-based.
"The fossil fuel industry is insatiable. Oil prices low? Oil prices high? Trump in office? Biden in office? War in Europe? Peace on Earth? The answer is suspiciously similar: unleash us." (Chris Hatch, National Observer, May 2025)
Let's not forget that carbon capture is a boondoggle. It may fall under the heading of 'gaslighting'. It has never been shown to work at scale. But our friends in the industry, mainly the Pathways Alliance, keep insisting that someday it will. I fear the world will have weaned itself off of fossil fuels before they get CCS working. That's why they need taxpayers' money to do it.
It's maddening to see Calgary transit buses bearing signs that proclaim that 'natural' gas is 'cleaner, cheaper, better'. In fact the science tells us that fracked gas is worse than coal.
Two facts about EQUALIZATION (EQ):
1) Most Canadians, including journalists, do not understand how it works.
2) Right-wing politicians in Alberta peddle disinformation about EQ to inflame Albertans' irrational rage and to use as leverage for new pipelines.
More facts about EQUALIZATION (EQ):
Alberta is NOT a "net contributor to federal coffers".
Alberta does not send a cent to Ottawa.
"Provinces" send $0 to Ottawa. Taxpayers (individuals and corporations), not provinces, pay federal taxes.
"Net" implies a two-way flow. No two-way flow here.
Tax dollars flow from taxpayers, not the Alberta government.
Provincial transfer dollars flow to provincial governments, not taxpayers.
Two separate entities. Two one-way flows. No "net" anything.
Albertans are subject to the same effective tax rates as other Canadians from coast to coast. Canadians earning $100,000 pay the same federal taxes whether they live in Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, or Halifax. No unfairness.
Federal transfer dollars flow from households and corporations to Ottawa — and back out again to households and provincial governments to pay for programs and services that benefit the entire population.
All wealthy taxpayers pay far more in taxes than their households receive back in transfers and services. All wealthy taxpayers are net contributors. Most of those federal tax dollars are generated outside Alberta.
The fact that a group of taxpayers pay more per capita in federal taxes than their provincial government gets back in federal spending does not mean that they prop up Confederation. It signifies only that rich people account for a relatively high proportion of the population.
If the province's population represents a small fraction of the national total, their total contribution to Ottawa's coffers is also a small fraction of the total. In the case of Alberta taxpayers, 14%.
That's right. Alberta taxpayers contribute 14 cents of every dollar in federal revenues. The other 86 cents comes from taxpayers outside Alberta.
When it comes to federal taxes, there is no Team B.C. or Team Manitoba. Just Team Canada. The top 10% of Team Canada contributes more than half the tax revenues. And most of the top 10% do not reside in Alberta.
No dispute that Alberta taxpayers collectively contribute more revenue to federal coffers than the province of Alberta receives in federal spending. Which only confirms what everybody knows: Alberta is relatively wealthy — and does not need or qualify for equalization.
Which does not negate the fact that most federal revenues and most of the funding for all federal programs including equalization flows from the pockets of wealthy taxpayers and profitable companies — all net contributors — outside the province.
Isn't the fact that Alberta also refuses to impose a sales tax (unlike most jurisdictions in North America or is it all of them, not sure) also a factor in equalization?
It IS complicated, which makes it perfect fodder for the conservative campaign to undermine trust in government.
I believe they are separate issues. Equalization is based on federal income tax rates as Geoffrey described, but a sales tax (or lack of one) is a provincial responsibility. By deciding to eliminate a sales tax Alberta is also depriving itself of a financial stabilizer in its budgetary process. This helps explain why Alberta takes a se
...serious slide when the world price of oil takes a dive after Saudi Arabia decides to lower the price by ramping up production to create a world glut. Danielle Smith loves to blame the feds for all her perceived victimization, when Saudi princes are yhe ones who do actual damag
No denying that the EQ formula is complicated.
On a good day, perhaps ten people in Ottawa understand it.
The EQ formula is based on 2 main formulas:
Formula 1 determines eligibility.
Formula 2 determines payout.
Eligibility is determined by comparing provinces' fiscal capacity to the national average. This refers to a province's ability to raise revenues. Not actual revenues, but hypothetical revenues if all provinces applied the same (i.e., national average) tax rates.
Fiscal capacities are calculated based on five categories:
-Personal income taxes
-Business income taxes
-Consumption (sales) taxes
-Property taxes
-Natural resource revenues
Sales tax is one of the 5 categories.
Alberta does not have a sales tax, but its fiscal capacity is calculated on the hypothetical assumption that all provinces employ the same tax regime.
Alberta enjoys higher than average fiscal capacity. So it does not need or qualify for EQ.
Alberta has lots of unused fiscal capacity (like a sales tax). If the Alberta government is looking to raise revenues, it could and should explore untapped sources of revenue -- like a sales tax.
The Alberta government cannot complain about its deficits, because it (and the voting public) refuses to entertain reasonable measures such as a sales tax and higher income tax rates.
Alberta boasts its own perverse brand of "conservatism": We want the best in services and infrastructure, but we do not want to pay for them.
Given Alberta's reliance on non-renewable natural resource revenues instead of taxes, citizens are less invested in their government. Alberta's democracy is feebler and its government more corrupt as a result.
Nice summary of FACTS - but the Alberta separatists are playing with EMOTIONS. For example, if I pay taxes to Ottawa (Note: Not Canada) then collectively "our province" is subsidizing "those separatists in Quebec" . Hard to rebut this, so why try? You need to counter offer with why Canada is, EMOTIONALLY a GOOD THING.
Excuse the all caps, but it seems to be the fashion ...
Equalization is the price we pay for having a country.
What does it mean to be a nation?
Without equalization, smaller provinces with few resources would likely become unviable. Or the federal govt would be forced to take over their basic services like health and education. Canadians across the country pay for Confederation either way.
Without equalization, the nation would suffer from gross economic disparity — regions of great affluence due to accidents of geography (e.g., oilsands in Alberta) contrasted with regions of dire poverty and despair. A weaker nation.
What would stop people from flooding from poor regions into affluent ones? People would just abandon poor provinces. Everybody would move to Ontario, Alberta, and B.C.
It is a geological accident that Alberta sits on top of bitumen deposits — the third largest oil reserve on Earth. If the oilsands were in Nova Scotia, Alberta might well be a have-not province instead.
To mitigate that poverty, reduce inequalities, and prevent social division, we employ a progressive tax system. Wealth flows from regions and individuals of affluence to regions and individuals less well-off. Within provinces as well as between provinces. By design.
The alternative is class conflict, civil strife, crime, despair, and social breakdown.
A vision of a nation most of us would not want to live in.
Taxes are not "subsidies". Taxes are the price we pay for living in society.
As a taxpayer, I do not "subsidize" education, health, roads, libraries, post office, etc. I benefit from living in a strong community where government services, programs, and infrastructure are available and a benefit to my fellow citizens. That is what makes a society.
We are not just a collection of individuals paying only for our own wants and needs. Under a progressive tax system, it is expected that the wealthy will shoulder a greater financial burden than those less well-off.
All taxpayers support "those separatists in Quebec".
Quebec taxpayers contribute more to Quebec's EQ payments than Alberta taxpayers do.
The Quebec government generates more in sales tax than it receives from EQ.
Quebec's EQ payment is the lowest per capita among regular EQ recipients: QB, MB, and the Maritimes.
Exactly. "Taxes are the price of civilization" is the narrative needed when we're all experiencing, like never before in any of our lives, JUST how thin that veneer of civilization really IS thanks to the idiotic right wing.
To the extent that there IS one, this is the LIBERAL "narrative" generally, always the more hopeful and positive one, that needs to counter the irrational conservative narrative that "socialism is evil" despite the fact that we have mainly survived by virtue of being a social species FFS.
This recent, welcome surge of nationalism is Liberal at the heart of it, shifting and broadening our perspective.
The last federal minister to tinker (emphasis on tinker) with equalization was Jason Kenney when he was part of the federal government of Alberta under Harper. The song remains the same even when the truth is obscured.
To quote Jack Nicholson, "They can't HANDLE the truth."
The underdog/victim/martyr myth has massive durability in human society; after all, it IS the entire basis of Christianity....
The reply-guy line I've had success with is to write that "I think the federal government should immediately approve any energy industry infrastructure that is presented with complete payment guarantees, so that we won't again be forced to pay for it with public funds. We got tricked out of $40B last time, and that's the last time."
Even conservative posters are giving that a thumbs-up. What they don't know, I guess is that we've seen the last major long-term carbon investments; the industry knows it doesn't have enough time left to pay them off.
That about nails it.
Hehehe......
I think it is once again worth noting that right wing politicians on their own would be unable to make these fake grievances into conventional wisdom. Nor would they be funding a bunch of separatist door-knockers to work Alberta. All that propaganda and organizational muscle takes money. That money comes from the oil patch itself--from a bunch of American-owned oil companies.
It seems to me that spreading a bunch of lies for the purpose of breaking up the country, at the behest of foreigners, could reasonably be considered a "seditious conspiracy", punishable by a fair number of years in prison.
Sure, they're not doing it because they want the country broken up, just because they want leverage so nobody dares get in the way of their profits. But that's playing with fire--just ask the Brexiteers, most of whom never intended to actually DO Brexit. Trying to gin up separation with lies on behalf of foreign interests is what these corporate shills are objectively doing. They should pay a price.
If you know a few wealthy friends, you will also know that they spend a lot of time and money to avoid paying taxes. The play hard ball with their employees and keep their salaries low. They are not the most generous citizens, do not provide much charitable assistance (unless their name and reputation can be lauded publicly). They believe that their fortune is solely due to their personal skill and hard work and do not recognize the contribution of their employees, lucky circumstances. They stick together socially and do not much care for others. There are exceptions, of course, but these people are the image of the Albertan government and the fossil fuel magnates.
It is not easy to change this kind of attitude in people: there have always been rich and poor. Their only weakness is their small number: they can be overwhelmed by the reasonable views of the greater mass of ordinary people.
I had the opportunity to have a conversation with a family member who lives and works in Alberta. When I explained how Equalization really works in Canada, he seemed surprised. When he said the Federal Government has treated Alberta so badly and I mentioned that they did complete the TME pipeline I’m not sure if he was surprised but he quickly pivoted to how much everyone in Alberta loves Danielle Smith and that we in the east are being given false information about her by the likes of the CBC. Now, this is an educated professional businessman, and yet these views or grievances, while somewhat nonsensical to me seem pervasive in Alberta. It became clear to me in that conversation that Albertans are being fed a narrative that does not include the facts as we are discussing here and I wonder why? I wish these conversations could happen at a national level. So often the grievances delivered by the likes of PP and DS are being spread unchecked without clarification by the national media and in so doing the media becomes part of the problem.
As does everyone of us who know the facts but make no effort to speak up and defend those facts. Bullying is a large part of the Alberta narrative...I know. I live here.
Still, lies are lies........in Alberta, we might try calling them what they are. It is precisely the endless repetition of these lies that have given so many Albertans a trojan horse to rail against.
Max Faucett's last paragraph needs to be underlined, in bold. Every defender of Canadian unity in Alberta, needs to get his or her facts straight, and repeat them whenever possible in all the public and on line forums in which we exchange ideas.
On Equalization in particular......every citizen, teachers of critical thinking in particular, should cringe with embarrassment and shame every time the Alberta complaint comes up. What the Federal government does with our tax dollars is a matter of Federal jurisdiction....so every Albertan should be helped to understand:
EQUALIZATION COULD END TOMORROW AND ALBERTANS' TAX BILL WON'T CHANGE BY A PENNY...equalization is what the federal government chooses to do with a portion of the taxes collected.........to make sure all Canadians receive a basic level of service.
It's starting to seem like you have to be a mathematical moron not to get that....the only way Albertans are going to pay less into equalization is if they make less money. Though not to worry: Danielle and her merry band of marketeers are working on that.
This article should be posted for free’ to every Canadian!
The question is, would Albertans read it? Like Trump supporters, a large percentage of Albertans seem to only read the message that suits their deeply ingrained beliefs. No matter how skewed they are. And Postmedia/ Rebel and many other so called media outlets feed those beliefs .
Indoctrination has worked wonders’ for the oil Industry . They pretty well own / run Alberta?
The oil Industry has looked after its own interests for far too long. And it is only’ about $$$