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If you’re still wondering why oil-rich Alberta doesn’t have a massive sovereign wealth fund like Norway, consider this.

Alberta is a province, not a country. Ergo, we don’t get to keep all the wealth we generate in this province. Not even close.

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I realize this runs counter to the preferred narrative in Canada, where politicians and media types insist Alberta either “put all its eggs in one basket” by failing to diversify its economy (hello Christy Clark), or that Albertans “spent like drunken sailors” during boom times.

Sure, there’s some truth to those arguments. But the far bigger reason why Alberta isn’t rolling in filthy lucre is that we are part of a federation called Canada.

Ergo, most of our tax revenues go to Ottawa, and are then redistributed to fund a vast array of social, health and educational programs in Quebec, the Maritimes and the rest of Canada. The federal equalization program alone, under which Quebec receives nearly $10 billion a year, is just part of that wealth transfer.