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Equalization is only a portion of approximately $20 billion of net federal transfers out of Alberta each year. The Canada Health Transfer and Canada Social Transfer also have a transfer effect. The same is true for federal benefit programs such as employment insurance, old age security and the Canada Pension Plan. Collectively, we pay in way more than we get back.

Suffice it to say that if Quebec were treated the way Alberta is treated, they would have separated long ago; and secondly, if Albertans had the opportunity to re-negotiate the terms of our relationship with Canada, we would never consent to this status quo.

The good news is that with the right leadership, there are two ways that Albertans can challenge this completely unfair and dysfunctional status quo.

The first is to hold a provincial constitutional referendum in Alberta to remove the equalization program from the Constitution.

In its 1998 Quebec Secession Reference, the Supreme Court stated that in a provincial referendum on a proposed amendment to the Constitution, if the voting results in “a clear majority … on clear question,” the federal government has “a constitutional duty to negotiate” the issue. While this rule was laid down in the context of the 1995 Quebec referendum to secede from the rest of Canada, the court went out of its way to phrase its ruling in terms that apply equally to a referendum in any province.

The second option is to seek a judicial opinion on the constitutional validity of the inclusion of mineral royalties in the current equalization formula. Both Ottawa and the provinces have the legal right to refer questions of constitutional law to their respective courts of appeal, and ultimately the Supreme Court of Canada, for a judicial ruling. This was a tactic used successfully by Alberta premier Peter Lougheed against the national energy program in 1980.