Time to Rethink Equalization Payments: Taxpayer group reveals 43,000 Quebec public sector workers earn $100,000 or more – February 5, 2020,
If you’re a Canadian who visits America, one of the things that will stand out about America in 2020 is the diversity of each U.S State economically, typically, Republican-run states will have a lower cost of living, while the Democrat-led States will have a higher cost of living. Now, the cost of living isn’t always an indication of the standard of living, because the larger the government involvement in a particular U.S State, the higher the cost of living will be.
With this said, this is primarily the reason why American politics is so polarising because voters are often allowed to see their tax dollars at work and are better able to see and observe for themselves if their State tax dollars are being spent wisely. Now, in Canada, things aren’t like this, in Canada, we have something called equalization payments. So the reader is aware below is a brief explanation of Equalization payments in Canada
In Canada, the federal government makes payments to less wealthy Canadian provinces to equalize the provinces’ “fiscal capacity”—their ability to generate tax revenues.
The money the provinces receive through equalization can be spent in any way the provincial government desires. The payments help guarantee “reasonably comparable levels” of health care, education, and welfare in all the provinces.
The definition of “reasonably comparable levels”, however, has been the subject of considerable debate.
Because Canada has equalizations structured in the manner it is a less wealthy Canadian province can be defined by a Province that spends more money than it generates in revenue, this in economic terms equates to Canadian provinces like Quebec being rewarded for being financially irresponsible with their tax dollars collected and the promises their politicians make to their voters.
In Quebec 43,469 provincial and municipal government employees earn more than $100,000 annually, costing taxpayers roughly $5.3 billion, Taxpayer group reveals 43,000 Quebec public sector workers earn $100,000 or more | NationalPost.com
Unionized Public Sector Workers and Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations.
With the combination of Public Sector Unions and Equalization, Alberta via Equalizations payments a large chunk of Quebecs PUBLIC SECTOR bills as well Alberta contributes to the imbalances created by Quebec’s protectionist economy, which is a major contributor to their Public Sector workers earning $100,000+ per year salaries.
It’s important to remember, that salaries and wages in a market economy are based on what the market can handle, this is why a lot of private companies go bankrupt or have to make cuts or alterations to the number of people they hire. In a government monopoly, public sector workers and public sector companies are rewarded for being unproductive. This has always been the flaw of Socialism, in Marxism, the workers’ are more important than the customers and in protectionism, the monarchy established by the Public Sector Union ward off the potentiality of more efficient competitors.
How Alberta pays Quebec’s bills: Four charts that show Alberta picks up the tab | nationalpost.com
It’s no secret that if Quebec left Canada, it resembles Argentina in a less than a decade, most Canadians who understand basic economics, comprehend the laughable nature of Quebec’s current separatists’ movement. Quebec is a laughing stock, that is blessed to have the personal and corporate welfare it enjoys on the backs of Western Canadians.
With that said if Western Canadians aren’t interested in forming their own separatists’ movement, this will continue and oddly enough, as is the case, if there’s an economic downturn, this is typically the period in which Quebec separatism will rise. I observe things for what they are and currently, it doesn’t appear that Canadians care much about the amount of money Quebec’s Public Sector workers are making. So if most Canadians don’t care, this will continue.
Taxpayer group reveals 43,000 Quebec public sector workers earn $100,000 or more | NationalPost.com
Interesting times ahead!