Premier David Abbey has confirmed that British Columbia will formally support Newfoundland and Labrador’s legal challenge over how the federal government ensures equal pay.
“We’re stuck with a system where what we pay goes directly to the people of Ontario and Quebec,” Abe said Wednesday, the final day of the prime minister’s meeting in Halifax.
Newfoundland and Labrador announced plans to take Ottawa to court in May, saying the current system is harming the country.
The province said at the time of the announcement that it could have received between $450 million and $1.2 billion over the past five years, rather than nothing, because of what it called a fundamental flaw in the formula.
“We’re going to stand up and make sure this program works for them, support them,” Abby said.
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However, experts on the Canadian political system point out that it was the provinces that negotiated equality.
Gerald Baer, a political scientist at UBC, says it’s not as simple as British Columbia giving subsidies to Ontario.
“I doubt that will qualify British Columbia for the match, and if it does, the numbers will be very small,” he said.
Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador are the provinces that do not currently accept equal payments.
AB argues that projects like the Massey Tunnel replacement project in British Columbia were promised federal funding but have yet to receive the money.
“The best results will come from working closely with the federal government when they want to fund these things and we can tailor it to the realities of British Columbia, and we can help them avoid mistakes,” Eby Are said.
The move follows the provincial election and ongoing criticism from AB over unfair federal funding to Western Canadians and British Columbians.
“Part of it is an election strategy that seems, at least in part, that you can blame the federal government for everything you don’t like about current B.C. politics,” Byrd said.
The last major change to equalization came under the Harper government, which required that total equalization payments increase in line with Canada’s national growth rate.
Since this change was made shortly after the 2008 financial crisis, the formula has undergone some minor tweaks, but no real major improvements.
– With files from The Canadian Press
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