Corner Brook MHA Gerry Byrne says it all dates back to a 2008 change to the equalization formula, where a percentage of resource revenue was to be included.
The province announced late last week that they intend to take Ottawa to court over the Federal Equalization Program. Equalization is meant to ensure provincial governments have sufficient revenues to provide comparable levels of public services at comparable levels of taxation. Essentially, fairness for all citizens. Corner Brook MHA Gerry Byrne says it all dates back to a 2008 change to the equalization formula, where a percentage of resource revenue was to be included. He says the NL government at the time negotiated a cap on payments that was introduced on resource revenue inclusion to the rate of 100 percent and over a 5 year period we will lose over $3 billion dollars. Byrne says the formula doesn’t take in the reality of what it takes to service a province and other remote areas of Canada Saskatchewan has joined the province in support of this suing of the federal government. He says any excess funding should be distributed to all provinces, rather than only to the provinces receiving equalization. The constitutional challenge is currently being prepared and will be filed in a Newfoundland and Labrador court in the coming weeks.
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