Canada is rigged. Now the fix is in for another five years.

Rarely has there been a sneakier ploy than the Trudeau government’s unilateral renewal of the current equalization system without formal notice to provinces or the public.

Distroscale

The closest for sheer nose-thumbing gall may be the 1980 meeting of Pierre Trudeau’s cabinet in Lake Louise, to discuss details of the National Energy Program.

The equalization dodge comes in federal Bill C-74, a wide-ranging implementation of budget details.

You almost need a sniffer dog to find this little section. But it’s there. And it keeps the current equalization system in place from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2024.

April Fool, Western Canada.

Alberta is crawling out of a devastating recession that at one point slashed $6.9 billion from provincial revenue.

But Alberta gets no equalization payment because of our relatively high “fiscal capacity.”

Quebec, which is doing quite well these days, receives $11.8 billion.

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UCP Leader Jason Kenny says Quebec played a big hand in destroying the Energy East pipeline project. And yet, Quebec benefits massively from Alberta’s industry.

“We’ve been sending Albertans’ tax dollars to politicians who have opposed our energy industry, which helps to create the wealth transferred through equalization,” he argues.

Ontario, which is supposed to be a “have” province this year, suddenly got $1 billion through a flip in the federal reading of the relevant law.

Here’s another twist, little known, that shows how the system is loaded against resource-producing provinces: There is something called fiscal stabilization, which is not part of equalization.

It pays a benefit — up to $60 per capita — to provinces that suddenly lose more than five per cent of their revenue.

But natural resource revenue only counts if more than 50 per cent is lose.

The massive drop in oil and gas receipts during the recession, therefore, is largely irrelevant.

As a result, Alberta lost $6.9 billion, but only received $251 million from the fiscal stabilization formula.

“The support we received amounts to less than four per cent of Alberta’s loss in revenue,” Finance Minister Joe Ceci said in a March 20 letter to his federal counterpart, Bill Morneau.

“In order for this program to work for Albertans, we must revisit or remove this ($60) cap so that provinces receive adequate support when revenues fall sharply.”

Ceci told reporters Friday: “We went through the deepest recession, everybody knows, in two generations. It has been a tough slog.

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“But when we needed the federal government, it wasn’t there.”

This $60 cap is a secondary issue, though. The real problem is equalization itself.

That’s where there’s another standard entirely.

Oil and gas doesn’t count for fiscal stabilization, but it is included in the wealth calculation that denies equalization payments to Alberta.

Prices down, prices up — the province can’t win either way.

Ceci’s language is extremely mild in these circumstances.

The current system, in its entirety, will be around for another five years — nearly six, if we account for the time until formal renewal next year.

Because the feds hid this decision, there’s a lot of talk about who knew what, and when.

Morneau made the equalization renewal clear to Ceci in the May 15 letter, nearly two months after it went on the order paper in Parliament.

Then it took Ceci more than a month to say anything publicly.

The first Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe knew of it, I’m told, was a couple of days ago when a reporter told him.

Everybody involved looks either secretive or stupid.

Except the feds, who are just sneaky, all in the traditional interest of refusing to change a system rigged against Alberta.

No leader calls for the abolition of equalization, which makes Canada a healthier country by reducing regional disparity in government service.

There haven’t always been useful negotiations, either. The Harper government, for instance, imposed one equalization term.

But this time, everybody expected talks aimed at making the system regionally equitable.

By shutting that down secretively, without consent or notice, the federal Liberals show how the system works for Western Canada.

It’s rigged.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald.

dbraid@postmedia.com

Twitter: @DonBraid

Facebook: Don Braid Politics