January 26, 2012
Federal report obtained by the Mowat Centre through an Access to Information request in 2010.
Toronto – In response to significant demand, the Mowat Centre has posted a copy of the report, An Operational Expenditure Need Equalization Formula for Canada, which was obtained from the Government of Canada as a result of an Access to Information Act request in 2010.
The report was featured in a Toronto Star article yesterday and is now available on the Mowat Centre’s website.
The report claims that “Equalization can’t satisfy its main objective, i.e. comparable public services for Canadians at comparable tax rates regardless of where they live, without looking at provincial differences in needs for those public services and in the costs of providing them” (p.1). Large sections of the report are redacted.
Currently, the federal government does not incorporate measures of need (e.g. the cost of delivering services) when calculating what each province receives from the program.
Next week, the Mowat Centre will begin releasing papers in its Fiscal Arrangements series, including a new version of the aforementioned 2006 paper.
Read the full report
