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It’s jaw-dropping, the gap between tax revenue Alberta sends to Ottawa and total benefits the province gets back:

The shortfall is $20 billion a year. By a curious coincidence, that almost matches the equalization payments — $18.9 billion — that Ottawa pays to six eligible provinces.

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Little points like that drive many Albertans wild, especially after a hard multi-year recession.

Finance Minister Joe Ceci plans to bring up equalization at Tuesday’s finance ministers meeting in Ottawa.

He won’t get anywhere. With retaliation against the U.S. only a week away, this one is all about trade and tariffs.

But there is a glimmer of hope that Alberta could get reasonable relief during a terrible economic crash, and maybe even a retroactive payment for this one.

Ceci is also asking for improvements to the fiscal stabilization plan.

Like so many other elements of the overall picture, this program is rigged — expertly fixed by the feds so that it covers only a small fraction of real losses.