In a recent report from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, “Provincial Solvency and Federal Obligations”, here is what was said: “In the medium to long-term, public finances in several provinces are unsustainable, raising the spectre of debt crises, damaged credit ratings, and federal bailouts if corrective steps are not taken”.
You just referred to the long-term fiscal gap, on the provincial side, of 2% in your report. Yes, that's $36 billion per year in 2012, at a time when the federal government has a long-term fiscal surplus of 1.4%. That gap, not just between the federal situation and the provincial situations, but the gap between provinces, is troubling and is tied to demographic issues and to the higher health care costs in an aging population in some provinces, less so in other provinces with a younger population, as an example.
Should we be looking at public policy changes in how we approach equalization, as an example, and considering other demographic realities, for instance, as opposed to purely per capita?