Equalization favours Maritimes and Manitoba

A new report by Winnipeg’s Frontier Centre for Public Policy has found the federal equalization program unduly favours the Maritimes and Manitoba at other provinces’ expense by increasing the number of federal government employees in those provinces. This leads to the Maritimes and Manitoba having overly large bureaucracies, writes author Ben Eisen in the 24-page report, Stealth Equalization: How Federal Government Employment Acts as a Regional Economic Subsidy in Canada. For example, PEI has the highest concentration of federal bureaucrats of any province at 3,675 for every 100,000 residents; Alberta, by contrast, has the lowest rate of federal public servants, at just 936 per 100,000.

Toronto Star