Ontario: Ontario Taxpayers

Ontario Dept: A new study by the respected Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto puts a number on the amount that the complicated system of federal transfers and payments to the provinces is shortchanging Ontario $11.1 billion a year, or almost 2 per cent of the province annual economic output. To put that in perspective, the province budget deficit, the cause of so much financial pain and political angst, is just a shade higher: $11.9 billion, according to The Star. The reasons are also well known. Equalization and federal programs such as employment insurance were designed many years ago when Ontario was fat and prosperous, enjoying the fruits of a booming industrial economy. Ontario taxpayers paid out more than they got back to support the chronically poor regions such as Quebec and the Atlantic provinces and no one much complained and There are few things more Canadian than claiming you re been shafted by Ottawa. In the case of Ontario, though, it actually true and it getting worse. There nothing new about this fiscal gap, of course. Premier Dalton McGuinty campaigned on it in the mid-2000s. Last year revealed a censored federal report that showed Ottawa had known for years that the national equalization program leaves some provinces Ontario and British Columbia, principally holding the short end of the stick. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.