L. Ian Macdonald on Quebec and Alberta

A great article on Quebec's dependence on Alberta and its oil. Premier charest and some of the other hypocritical "environmentalists" in Quebec, rail against the dirty tar sands, while financing the province's gold plated social programs with Alberta oil money. Its time for Quebec to balance its budget, increase university tuitions, rationalize social programs and cut taxes. Its also time to rid Canada of equalization.

Nor is there any evidence that it has the courage to raise day-care fees from $7 a day, when the actual cost is $49 a day — again subsidized by taxpayers, including the voters of Alberta through equalization. (Alberta sends $40 billion a year to Ottawa and gets only $19 billion back from the feds in transfers and entitlements, leaving $21 billion in equalization from Ottawa to the recipient provinces, which now include Ontario).

So Quebec, with 20% of the kids in the country, has 50% of all the day-care spaces in Canada.

Real needs

There’s more: About 25% of Quebec secondary students attend private schools, compared to around 10% in other provinces. But half of tuition fees for private schools are covered by the government. For example, one of the top high schools in Quebec is Loyola, where families pay $6,000 tuition, and the government covers the other half. Again, thanks to taxpayers, including those in Alberta.

I digress. To come back to the point of Bouchard and the group of 16, Quebec universities are chronically underfunded by at least $500 million a year relative to their real needs. And to ensure that no one is denied a college education because of inability to pay, any tuition increase could be accompanied by student aid.

The question is whether the Charest government has the courage to allow tuition fees to rise, or whether it will allow itself to be howled down by a mob of students. The same question goes for day-care costs.

“Political courage isn’t something you can swallow with your morning coffee,” Bouchard declared. “You can’t wait around for a knight to arrive atop a white horse and say, ‘I will solve the problem.’ That’s not how it happens. It’s the people who must support difficult decisions because they’re the ones who pay for them.”

By the way, thanks Alberta.