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Most of us hope we never have to use the various forms of insurance we buy. We pay our premiums and immediately file it to the back of our minds until we really need it.

Well, Alberta really needs it, and the federal insurance this province has paid into for a long time falls far short of helping us in our time of need.

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Economist Bev Dahlby hopes his latest research will change that.

In his highly readable, 20-page report released Wednesday by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, where Dahlby is a distinguished fellow, he says that “many Albertans are feeling shortchanged given how much they contribute to the rest of Canada compared to how little help they get back when their economy is in serious trouble, as it has been lately.”

The tendency of politicians and commentators to focus their grievances on the unfairness of the federal equalization program — which he acknowledges needs reform — would be much better spent focusing on the fiscal stabilization program, “which is meant to be a form of insurance for provinces whose economies experience economic shocks.”