Article content continued

His comments come amid a divisive debate within Quebec about whether the province should approve the exploration and commercialization of its vast oil and gas reserves. There are an estimated 46 million barrels of discovered oil alone in its largest known deposits.

Meanwhile, a growing number of people outside the province are questioning whether it will be fair to maintain Quebec’s existing federal transfer payments should it ultimately decide to ban some oil and gas activity and leave potential royalty and tax revenues on the table.

Maybe it’s not an analogy everybody’s going to like [but] how did we reform welfare?

Quebec has been receiving equalization payments since the program was set up in 1957. It is the largest provincial beneficiary, receiving almost half of the $14.8-billion in federal transfers in 2011-2012.

The goal of Ottawa’s equalization policy, giving all provinces the means to offer public services at comparable levels of quality and taxation, is laudable, Mr. Binnion said. But he argues it is also fostering a culture of deterrence against resource development.

Provinces that pay into equalization need to drop their moral superiority and adopt a more sophisticated attitude toward solutions, he said.

“Alberta needs to grow up and realize that what we’re doing is perpetuating the situation,” Mr. Binnion said. “What we’re doing is providing disincentives to develop [resources] and at the same time being arrogant about it. Well, we’ve got to stop being arrogant about it and start thinking about how do we actually help our fellow Canadians. And that’s by letting them develop their economy and not taxing it back.”

Ottawa is scheduled to update the equalization program next year. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has said his department does not intend to make any significant changes to the current system.