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At times of inter-regional strife, it is common that Albertans will begin to complain that if Canada doesn’t like their way of doing business, they can always return Alberta’s tax money.

“If they are too good for our resources, then clearly they don’t deserve our ‘dirty’ money,” reads a typical Alberta reaction to B.C.’s blockade of the Trans Mountain expansion.

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And there is much truth to this. For quite some time, Alberta has disproportionately paid more into federal treasuries than almost any other part of the country. But contrary to popular opinion, it’s not the much-maligned equalization formula that’s to blame.

According to the most recent numbers from Statistics Canada, Albertans sent $49 billion worth of taxes to Ottawa in 2016, but only received $27.2 billion back in the form of federal spending.

This equates to a “gap” of $21.8 billion. On average, it means that, in 2016, every Albertan paid $5,265 more into Confederation than they get back.