Come on feds, play fair

The unemployment rate in Newfoundland and Labrador has been the highest in Canada since Confederation.

Why is it that the federal government, under the guise of efficiency and cost-cutting, continues to eliminate operations in Newfoundland and Labrador and/or to transfer federal employees from Newfoundland and Labrador to, say, Nova Scotia?

Currently, Nova Scotia has three to four times more federal employees than Newfoundland and Labrador. The recent drop in oil prices is a wake-up that Newfoundland and Labrador still needs a fair share of federal government employment and revenues.

More importantly, a situation where residents of one province control the resources of another is wide open for abuse.

Decisions that are pertinent to Newfoundland and Labrador-based resources are being made by those who are either not familiar with this province’s issues, may be biased in their decision-making and/or use their position to defer the use of our resources to others.

Are we, as a province, willing to accept second-class citizenship? There are those who will say, “What can we do? We have only seven seats in Ottawa.”

Remember 1949? We had options then.

Revenues from federal employment and its multiplier effect is only one source of revenue to the Newfoundland and Labrador economy. The federal government offers much more to our economy.

This province and all others receive comparable per capita funding from federal government social programs. Canada, in area, is the second largest country in the world. Therefore, it is not surprising that each province has different problems to resolve.

The federal government has created a number of cost-sharing programs to help provinces resolve these issues.

Not all programs, however, were developed to share federal revenues on a fair, per capita basis.

The equalization program, for example, defies both logic and common sense. It is a clear indication that the federal government has little or no respect for the intelligence of Canadians.

In recent years, Newfoundland and Labrador and the provinces of Quebec and Ontario have expressed concerns with the status quo. Here is a question to political parties:

If elected, will your party implement an independent national com- parison of the total federal per capita expenditures in each province? Will your party take steps to minimize the differences in federal government per capita spending in provinces?

Such an investigation should include direct and indirect federal expenditures in provinces from all federal agencies, Crown corporations, the military, etc., divided by that portion of the provincial population that is supported by its own resources.

Such an investigation should provide an economic management tool for government officials; locate weaknesses in both the provincial and federal current economic practices; estimate the amount of federal funds that need be allocated to resolve the expenditure imbalance between provinces; ensure that all provinces receive a comparable per capita amount from total federal government expenditures; and dispel any generalization that any province is being unfairly funded by Ottawa.

If, however, a province is not receiving its fair share of federal expenditures, then the federal government will be made aware of the imbalance and have the opportunity to act accordingly. Dave Short St. John’s