Juno News - Danielle Smith calls out Equalization

00:00:00.560 I'm Kris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation here on Juneau News.

00:00:05.920 I had to show you this clip, okay? We can't let this one slip by. This is Alberta Premier

00:00:12.720 Danielle Smith just bringing the fire, okay? To her credit, she is sitting on these panels. They're

00:00:19.200 called Alberta Next panels. They're traveling all over the province and she's sitting there

00:00:24.320 for hours and people are coming in asking her questions. In some cases, they're horrifically

00:00:29.200 rude questions. In this case, she was actually asked about how Ottawa is treating Alberta and how

00:00:36.560 much we are getting screwed by equalization. I can't say it better than this. Listen to the Premier.

00:00:43.360 Talking about tonight, is Ottawa over, do you want to hear the answer? Ottawa overtaxing us.

00:00:50.000 I mentioned that at the beginning of the evening, that they, we are, our, our program costs are 70%

00:00:56.880 of all tax dollars. We only collect 40%. Ottawa collects 60% and then they use political means

00:01:03.440 to transfer it. Alberta, year after year, has 20 to 25 billion dollars that is siphoned out of our system

00:01:11.360 to go to Ottawa so that it can be spent mostly in Quebec, but also in other places that vote liberal.

00:01:17.200 We have been watching this for years. 600 billion dollars in the last 40 or 50 years that have been

00:01:24.080 taken out of this province. You don't think we might be able to do a little bit more on social

00:01:28.000 spending if those 20 to 25 billion dollars stayed here? You don't think we'd be able to cut taxes a

00:01:32.880 bit if those 20 to 25 billion dollars stayed here? It is 5,000 dollars per Albertan that every single

00:01:42.640 year gets transferred out of this province for political reasons so that the Liberals can continue

00:01:48.720 to spend it in places that vote Liberal. That is the, that is what is happening in the province and

00:01:53.920 in the country. Thank you. That is once again Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. She was at the Fort

00:02:00.160 Mac Alberta next panel there and you could hear people in the crowd cheering her on and she's right.

00:02:06.000 It's not just, it's not just equalization, it's other transfer payments. To put it nicely, Alberta is

00:02:12.400 getting drained and most of that money goes to Ottawa which is then redistributed across Canada.

00:02:20.240 I'll put it this way, even without equalization, okay, I did the math on this and it's shocking.

00:02:26.560 So you might have heard the estimation that since 2015 there's been so many pipelines blocked and

00:02:34.560 resources projects strangled, so many no, no, no stop signs coming from the previous Trudeau government

00:02:41.520 that it's cost Canada around 600 billion dollars, okay? On top of that, the parliamentary budget officer

00:02:50.160 has pointed out that Ottawa's cap on Alberta's oil and gas, the cap on Alberta's energy production,

00:02:59.120 because it is a production cap by all means, if you combine those two costs, that would cover the

00:03:06.880 entire populations of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba's income taxes for 10 years.

00:03:18.640 So the Premier is spot on by taking it to Ottawa, pointing out that Alberta needs more respect,

00:03:26.400 that we need to get our resources to market, and we have to stop getting screwed by the East,

00:03:32.560 because they're taking way more from our province than we are ever seeing coming back. And for folks

00:03:38.800 who are checking, it's not just equalization transfer programs, it's transfer programs writ large. Folks,

00:03:47.040 it's super important that we watch shows like this, and that we see clips like this, and that we share

00:03:53.200 information like this. Be sure that you don't miss out on this. Head on over to Juno News,

00:03:58.960 become a subscriber, so you can spread the word.

Juno News - August 27, 2025