Saskatchewan will launch a lawsuit against the federal government next week over equalization payments, Premier Lorne Calvert said Wednesday. [...]
Calvert said the legal action would not be over a broken campaign promise. [...]
... the suit would be based on the sections of the constitution that require the equalization program to be fair and equitable. -- CBC
Update 06.18.07: I don't agree with much of Dan Leger's writing, but on this topic he is absolutely stellar and correct. I imagine he's being inundated this morning with loads of angry reader mail; I'll have to send him an encouraging message. The money shot in his "truth-telling" commentary:
Truth No. 10: This is the tough one. What [Nova Scotia is] demanding is unfair. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador should be content to get their fiscal capacities to the national average and then allow sharing of their resource wealth.
Why? Because that is what democratic nations are built on: fairness and justice. Because Alberta shares its petro-wealth. Because Ontario used to be generous too. Because without the great Canadian sense of fairness, equalization wouldn't exist in the first place. And Nova Scotia would be poor as dirt.
The mere existence of equalization is enormously fair. That's the point of the title.
I fully disagree. Equalization has been a major hindrance to economic development. It allows governments that are poorly run to continue on the same course without the backlash that should be forthcoming. The market is cruel to those who are not competitive for a reason. It is a great motivator to fix what is wrong and we would be a better without it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kevin and I disagree your assumption that fairness and justice is what great(?) democracies are built on, Freedom to succeed or fail based on your own decisions is what 1st world democracies are built on, what you describe is the socialist ideal, State engineered, a free lunch, a drain on the productive to support the nonproductive. Ant V Grasshopper.
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