Read an interesting article about Alberta today. A point was made about how taxes in Alberta are kept artificially low by living off the oil and gas windfall royalties.
It is true, no PST in Alberta, provincial payroll taxes are the lowest in Canada and gasoline taxes are low. A point was made that Alberta was living off finite resource wealth that will eventually wind down and that some of this finite wealth should be invested for future generations. It went on to say that what Alberta is doing is selling the house to pay for the groceries of today.
But isn't this the same thing that a lot of Canadians do at a personal level? When they get a home equity loan or reverse mortgage, are they not selling the house to pay the grocery bill for today?
Canadians, not just Albertans, are living off the fat of the land.
But at least the Alberta government has the cash. The federal government in Ottawa just borrows and spends. Gives it to Volkswagen or to Quebec in the disguise of transfer payments.
Canada really is a little bit more than dysfunctional. Pierre Poilievre is telling the truth when he says Canada is broken.
Wayne Martineau
Fraser Lake
