Specifically he has been talking a lot about how Newfoundland and Labrador is being screwed because it cannot collect Equalization. Ball's whining about Equalization is part of his strategy to avoid making any real changes to the strategic trajectory set by the Conservatives in 2007. Essentially it is about spending as much as you can for as long as you can.
With that in mind, here are three choice quotes from Issues and Answers' year-ender with Premier Dwight Ball.
After Lynn Burry points out that the provincial government pays 83% of the cost of health care, up from the days when the province and federal government split the cost 50/50 the Premier said:
"I agree the Equalization program does not work for Newfoundland and Labrador."
Three things, mostly for Lynn Burry.
1. Health care is entirely within provincial jurisdiction under the constitution. The federal government isn't actually supposed to put *any* money into it.
2. The federal government covered half the cost of everything in Newfoundland and Labrador at one point because the provincial government was so poor it couldn't pay for provincial services on its own. That's why every Premier until Danny Williams came along wanted to get Newfoundland and Labrador off the dole. Williams and every Premier since him, including the current one, has been trying to get back on it.
3. Federal health care funding never came from Equalization. It has always come under a separate funding arrangement. At one point they called it the Canada Health Transfer and it went along with social services funding in the Canada Social Transfer. Now the federal funding is combined under one thing called the Canada Health and Social Transfer.
"What is it about Newfoundland and Labrador that you can define us as a 'have' province?"
The answer is simple and, in some ways it is astonishing that over the past 15 years provincial politicians can get away with talking utter nonsense about a really simple thing like Equalization. Politicians from all parties trot out this foolishness and reporters just lap it up or, in Lynn Burry's case, fuel the idiocy with questions that are just set up with the same stuff.
Equalization takes money from the federal government's general revenue and gives it to provincial governments that don't make enough money on their own to come up to a common, national income standard. The governments use that money to deliver services that are entirely provincial under the constitution. That means the provinces are supposed to make enough money on their own to cover those costs.
The transfer of federal cash is based on the recognition that all provinces are not equal in their ability to raise cash, so the federal government steps in to give some a hand. That way Canadians are not short-changed if - and here's the kicker - the provincial government spends its money appropriately.
Four provinces make more than the standard income. They are known colloquially as "have" provinces: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
"Have not" means you don't bring in enough cash on your own to make ends meet and so you get a hand-out.
If Dwight Ball really speaks to the Premier of Nova Scotia and moans that this province does not get Equalization, he's lucky Stephen McNeil doesn't punch him in the bake and then kick him in the goolies just for good measure. Like most Premiers, McNeil would give some part of his anatomy to be raking in as much cash as Dwight Ball does every year.
Newfoundland and Labrador *is* a have province by any measure. It takes in more money per person than any government in the country save Alberta. The problem is that successive provincial governments have spent even more than that again. There's no good reason for the overspending. That's why the government is in the hole all the time.
"...Equalization is not the answer to our revenue or deficit problem."
Huh?
If it is not the answer to our problem, why complain about not getting any of it?
-srbp-
