There is no small irony that Danny William's greatest contribution to Canada thus far has been to make every provincial premier into yet another beggar for increased federal hand-outs.
The latest in the line is Premier Dalton McGuinty, ably supported by editorial opinion in his province, including the ever-Liberal Toronto Star. Their editorial today is really nothing more than a thinly disguised appeal for more federal transfer payments to Ontario. Dalton is trying to pull a Danny - claim grievous wounds from Ottawa and demand reparations. In Danny's case, he pointed to a bunch of slights, real and perceived. In Dalton's case he is claiming that his province bankrolls everyone via Ottawa. The Star backs him up - of course.
Both Premier McGuinty and The Toronto Star are playing in Ontario on uniquely Ontarian parochial outlooks but there is no mistake that the views are no more factual than the local prejudices that fueled Danny Williams' recent campaign.
But here's a simple perspective that is as unlikely to get any play among the official opinion leaders, read news media editorial rooms - as the fact that Danny Williams most emphatically did not get anything close to a "sweetheart" deal. On that point, flip over to Paul Wells' blog.
Equalization transfers come out of Ottawa's general revenues. That means it includes the revenue generated in Newfoundland and Labrador by the Government of Canada. Unless Dalton has been slipping reflective dye into the local money supply there is no way to prove which dollar in transfers goes anywhere.
If one takes a look at Equalization and similar transfers to Newfoundland and Labrador, the amounts involved are curiously similar to the total amount of federal government revenue generated in Newfoundland and Labrador in any given year. In 1991 and 1994, for example, the government to government transfers are almost exactly what Ottawa collected in tax type revenues in Newfoundland and Labrador. I have the data if anyone wants to e-mail me for the table.
What that means is that the Newfoundland and Labrador economy generated the revenues needed to run the provincial government. We didn't get a hand-out from Queen's Park or Perth to build our schools; if we did, then Newfoundlanders and Labradorians would have a legitimate right to demand a vote in Ontario elections. After all, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have a democratic right to hold accountable those who provide public services in the province.
Chew on that one for a second, Dalton.
In the case of this deal, Dalton, the revenues are certainly no more than those collected by the Government of Canada from its shares in the Hibernia project. In effect, the federal government has provided about eight years of Hibernia revenues to Newfoundland and Labrador. That's like Ottawa having shares in mines in Northern Ontario and agreeing to ship Queen's Park the cash. Who could find fault with that?
Where the deficit has come in this scheme since 1949 is in the contribution Newfoundlanders and Labradorians should make to the operation of the federal government. Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have contributed to the country in other ways and in other places but the people still living in the province itself should be paying a fair share to run Foreign Affairs and Defence and the Coast Guard to name a few.
In a couple of years time that will happen and no one should be happier than Dalton McGuinty and the Canadians who live in his province.
In the meantime, Dalton McGuinty and Danny Williams should be looking beyond their own borders; they need to get their heads out of their navels or whatever provincial orifice has captured their attention so completely. There are good reasons to reform federal-provincial fiscal relations, but they have nothing to do with Dalton McGuinty's misreading of the recent offshore oil and gas revenue deals. Now that Ottawa has a cash surplus and the national economy is reasonably stable, we should deal with the problem now, collectively as Canadians.
The biggest challenge in doing that is for provincial premiers to break out of their traditional narrow perspective and see that there is more to the country than what they can see from their offices. Other premiers have risen to that challenge in the past and there is no reason why current premiers cannot do the same thing.
