The Cost of Alberta’s ‘Fair Deal’ Pressure Tactic Only Worth it if Ottawa Yields

The Cost of Alberta’s ‘Fair Deal’ Pressure Tactic Only Worth it if Ottawa Yields
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney in Trudeau’s office on Parliament Hill on May 2, 2019. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick
Philip Cross
Updated:

The  goal of the Alberta government’s “fair deal” panel hearings is to correct a perceived imbalance between large revenues collected by Ottawa and inadequate federal government services provided to Alberta.

Among the changes that are being proposed, which include withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan and federal cost-sharing programs, the most revealing surround Alberta administering its own services such as tax collection and policing.

Philip Cross
Philip Cross
Author
Philip Cross is a former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada and Munk senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
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