It is essential to distinguish between the different transfers. There are transfers between individuals, between governments and between regions. The transfer system that supports the provinces is essential in Canada. It must also be pointed out that it allows the provinces to offer an acceptable and reasonable level of service.
So we really have to distinguish here. A lot of people comment about transfers in the country and say, well, it's looked after through employment insurance. Well, it's not. This is a very different kind of program. What we're talking about here is simply assuring that each provincial government has roughly similar means to deliver an identical package of services. And it doesn't mean you're trying to equalize incomes between Albertans and Nova Scotians; it simply means that the governments have the resources to do the job the Constitution assigns. I think it's an important distinction. In Canada we tend to get focused on, or view, provinces as personalities and confuse the population of a province with their government.
All that equalization can do is simply allow the governments to have the resources to deliver services like education. And it's important to make that distinction because people who worry that the more well-off provinces are going to be, in a sense, hurt by an equalization program should know that it takes away nothing from any provincial government. It's a federal government program that enables those provinces whose revenues are below the national average to be brought up to the national average. So there's no reason to confuse this with the concern about wealth in parts of the country being equalized. It's not a case of equalizing wealth; it's a case of giving those provincial governments a capacity to offer services. I think it's something we have to remind ourselves.
There's no reason that the Government of British Columbia and the Government of Nova Scotia or the Government of Newfoundland should be richer or poorer. They're not people we're talking about; they're simply governments.