Thanks for referencing my article from the Centre of Constitutional Studies.

Awesome website!

-in germany, our gst is at 19%, and almost certainly headed for another raise to deal with the deficit this fall. no one is upset about it, as it seems to be clear to every one that its the lesser evil for now.

-if you where to earn 4800€ a month, your netto in germany would be around 2200€. the rest goes to taxes (45%) and mandatory social systems(further two digit percentages). (the last time i checked)

-in 1989, german reunification was begun, which has turned into a massive effort to rebuild east germany. this effort will last at least until 2019 (30 years), and cost at least between 250 billion and 1,2 trillion euros. everyone in both east and west had an instant 5% tax added to their income taxes, called a solidarity tax. abuse in the form of politicians giving favours and other scandals have occurred, but there seems to be a general consensus on the need to rebuild what the soviet union destroyed in 40+ years of occupation.

the good news is that my tuition costs are 105€ per semester, and i only have to pay back half of my student loan. its the law. :)

1. I agree that EP offers no incentive for a “have-not” province to become a “have” province financialy. It’s more of a pride issue, which, when it comes to a Finance Minister making his budget, isn’t taken very much into consideration. The only time you hear about it is during election campaigns (like the Graham Liberal government in New-Brunswick, and we know how awfully that has gone so far). In that respect, the idea has failed, as it encourages a structural poor showing.

2. However, without EP, many provinces would have gone under a long long time ago. New-Brunswick is one of those. The reason is because in many provinces, it is not “anti-business government” that keeps businesses away, it’s the lack of a local economic generator that builds on itself. See Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, etc. It is a lot harder to convince a company to come to Moncton, or Summerside, or Cape-Breton.

3. It is true that if we cut our social services, we could balance the budget without EP. But, in NB’s case, I believe EP amounts to 1/6th of our provincial budget. Which means you would have to cut social services by 1/6th! Now, take into consideration that health and education take up over 80% of our budget, and what do you end up with? How could that be acceptable?

4. I agree that EP is not a perfect program, but what else can we put in its place? Every area has differences that give them an advantage over other areas. Some advantages are simply bigger then others. Alberta has oil and gas, which has made them very lucky since the 1980s. Ontario has GREAT accessibility to BIG american markets. British Columbia has best access to booming markets in far-east Asia. In the maritimes, we’re far from the bigger american markets, we’re close to protective EU (perfect example here is the seal hunt debate), Africa and South America (and even then Ontario and Québec have almost as good access) and our primary sector consists of wood and fish, two industries in the shitter. That’s the point of EP, trying to help provinces who have problems for things that are out of their control.

5. Although some ground can be given by both sides of the argument, this is more an ideoligical argument then anything else. Right wing economists will not want to give government their earnings, while left wing economists are more likely to do so. Personally, I think we should raise the GST back to 15%, so there you go. I am already giving up on agreeing and finding common ground with many people on this issue. ;-)

if you think of it not on the bigger scale but on the smaller one, the idea that some one who works in B.C. could keep $2000 a year in their own pocket, for their Family. Do you think that is fair?

and when it is always the same provinces paying you know something is wrong, like Ontario has never received ( until this next year and only 350 million ) and other places like New Brunswick and Quebec almost always got them. and their is no incentive to change your situation because for every dollar you make you lose it in transfers! that is just insanity! talk about welfare states !

My biased .01 ( would .02 but the other penny’s in Quebec )