The $3 Billion Lie

On Thursday, Rick Borotsick, the stalwart of intellectual thought for the Hughgressive Hughservatives, rose in the House, once again, to prove that he is either a liar, or an idiot.

According to Rickie, Manitoba depends on the Federal government for 40% of its Revenue:
"why is it that we depend for 40 percent of our revenue in the province of Manitoba on the federal government and on other provinces in this country"

Not to be outdone, Hughie rose a couple of questions later to prove that he is both a liar, and an idiot:
"We have gone grovelling to provinces like B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Newfoundland for handouts in order to get by from year to year. Those handouts are now at over $4 billion, more than double the amount of reliance that we had in 1999."

Gentlemen.

The Revenue for the Province of Manitoba in the 2009/2010 Budget year is going to be about $12.8 Billion.

The Equalization Payment is going to be about $2 Billion.

That's about 16% of total Revenue for the Equalization Payment. For the arthmatically challenged, the lie is a difference of about 24%.

For the Equalization Payment to make up 40% of the Revenue of the Province of Manitoba, the Equalization payment would have to be a shade over $5 Billion.!

That's a $3 Billion lie you folks have got going there.

And to think that Hugh has the nerve to call the 2009/2010, "phoney". pfffft!

Now. I recognize that, sticking to the literal, the Honourable Members are refering to _all_ Federal Transfers, not just the Equalization Transfer.

In that instance, the total of all Federal Transfers makes up nearly 30% of the Provincial Budget. A lie with a smaller percentage, only a $2 Billion lie in the literal.

However, the wording of their questions and the context in which they were set is clearly an attempt to mislead the general public to beleive that all Federal Transfers equals Equalization. There is a significant difference, for all Provinces receive Federal Transfers. Even the Land of Milk and Honey and our sister Province to the immediate left of us.

The problem here is that it appears that your lies mislead good-natured and trusting bloggers like my friend over at Hacks and Wonks. Who hear a number like 40% at a pre-Budget "Consultation" and they run with it.

So the Equalization makes up about 16% of Total Revenue and all Federal Transfers make up about 30% of Total Revenue. Looking into our time machine, we see that this has been the case for decades. On average, during the Filmon years, Federal Transfers made up about 34% of the Total Revenue.

There is no shame in the Equalization program, we're not blessed with a gazillion barrels of oil, nor are we located next to major markets, the pupose of the program is to offset these disparaties, Gary said it best:

I have always been one who has said that equalization is one of the fundamental principles that binds this country together. We have so many disparities region to region, province to province that if it were not for something as dramatic and as important as equalization, you would find that there would be essentially two classes of citizens, at least two classes of citizens in this country, and we do not want this.

We did not want that as a province back in the '60s when equalization was brought into being. It was brought into being through the discussions, I am told, of Premier Lesage of Quebec and Premier Roblin of Manitoba. They conceived this as a response to that fear of having different classes of citizens in the different provinces. Equalization has served us well, and in every single discussion I have been engaged in, whether it was Meech Lake, whether it was Charlottetown, I argued that we had to have protection for equalization as part of that."

Filmon was right on that one.