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Ontario will accomplish an impressive double-feat this year: The province is poised to shed its “have-not” status, while still scooping up hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal equalization program.

Celebrations probably won’t be cracking off in Ontario, though — the change in status is mostly due to the relatively poor economic situation in Alberta and Saskatchewan, rather than anything happening in the Ontario economy.

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But, thanks to flattening inequality across Canada’s provinces, for the first time in nearly 10 years, Ontario will regain its status as a “have” province.

The $963 million in equalization money Ontario will receive comes in the form of “adjustment payments,” and may be disconcerting for Albertans who are already skeptical of a program that attracts populist ire in the province.

The program’s ceiling on total payments — a cap brought in by the Harper government — is now being treated as a floor, with the federal government doling out extra “adjustment payments” to five provinces.