Unpublished Newswire

One of Alberta’s leading economists says that tying federal equalization payments directly to provincial GDP could help ease regional tensions and ensure equalization dollars are spent more efficiently. Trevor Tombe, an economist at the University of Calgary, says that the current equalization formula , which is based on how much revenue each province raises, creates resentment between richer and poorer provinces. That is, it encourages the poorer ones to avoid growing revenues so they can keep getting bigger cheques from Ottawa. Tombe said that tethering equalization payments to GDP...