Central Canadian politicians just can't resist poking the western bear.
"There is no social acceptability for a pipeline that would pass through Quebec territory," said Quebec Premier François Legault at the recent first ministers meeting.
"Moving on equalization may well be a possibility at the next time we renew it, which will be in four years," said federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau, rather offhandedly, at a federal-provincial finance meeting days later.
Pin pulled, grenade tossed.
The Quebec premier's adamant stand blocking any revival of the Energy East pipeline in the context of Quebec getting an additional $1.4 billion, for a total of $13.1 billion, in equalization payments this year, was gleefully jumped on by Alberta's United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney.
Alberta's long standing status as a major contributor to equalization and Quebec's status as a beneficiary is an easy grievance to exploit. Morneau made it worse by reiterating his plan to leave the current equalization formula in place for four years.
And Legault upped the ante with his dismissive remarks about oil and pipelines, the very pumping heart of the Alberta economy.
"So after unilaterally cancelling this year's planned equalization talks, Justin Trudeau's finance minister says the issue can be revisited — in FOUR YEARS. Meanwhile, suffering Alberta continues to transfer wealth to a province blocking the source of our wealth. Truly outrageous," Kenney tweeted.
He even videoed a YouTube diatribe on the issue while wiling away some time in the Regina airport between meetings with Conservative premiers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
There's no doubt the UCP base is riled up about equalization. It's a 'we give, they take' sort of argument.
The background and details are considerably more complex. Equalization payments are enshrined in the constitution as a means to give provincial governments "sufficient revenues to provide reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation." That way all Canadians can enjoy the same level of services in theory.
Motherhood and apple pie as that may sound, the detail of how the contributor/recipient numbers are calculated has become complex and, according to opponents, particularly in contributing jurisdictions like Alberta, unfair.
Kenney's campaign has several logical holes in it. The current formula isn't working, particularly while Alberta suffers through the present oil price crash and resulting economic woes, he argues. He doesn't mention that the formula was actually devised by the Stephen Harper government, of which he was a prominent member.
Kenney argues that Quebec's government is currently running a hefty surplus, while Alberta's finances are deeply in the red. It's not much of a deep dive to point out, however, that Quebec also has a provincial sales tax just shy of 10 per cent while Alberta has none.
The Alberta NDP has surrendered on the equalization issue, says Kenney. In fact, Premier Rachel Notley and Finance Minister Joe Ceci have both protested the current formula. Notley says the current formula disadvantages Alberta and Ceci says he brings it up every chance he gets in pan-Canadian finance minister meetings.
Kenney says he would hold a provincial referendum on the issue to ensure that non-renewable resource revenue is removed from the equalization formula. What that would accomplish, beyond a statement of protest, is murky. Equalization is a federal program funded by federal taxes. There is no big bag of equalization money that the Alberta government can refuse to send to Ottawa.
And even the most outraged Albertan probably isn't going to try withholding his or her income tax payment as a protest.
But all that is detail. Kenney is counting on a longstanding Alberta tradition of fighting elections based on opposition to Ottawa and central Canada. Standing strong against easterners who would steal Alberta's wealth is a refrain echoing from the pre 1970s' Social Credit through the Lougheed and Klein Progressive Conservatives to today's UCP.
Every possible chance, Kenney connects Notley to Trudeau in his political rhetoric, even when the two increasingly have little common political ground.
And now that Legault has interpolated himself into a pipeline debate, Quebec also makes a convenient target.
Alberta has increasingly been at odds with other provinces (B.C. on pipelines and Ontario on beer) and Ottawa for the past two years. Those divisions are only growing wider as the stakes get higher during the election campaign period.
