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Alberta

Senate Reform needed sooner than later for the sake of national unity

Published

3 years ago

6 minute read

Article submitted by Project Confederation

Real Equality For Provinces

Last week I wrote to you all about how some provinces are more equal than others when it comes to seats in the House of Commons.

You can refer back to last week’s email for the full details, but here’s a quick summary:

In theory, seats are distributed across the country based on the populations of the provinces but, in practice, a number of provinces receive “bonus” seats to make things “fairer” for them.

Quebec gets 6 bonus seats, while some of the smaller provinces receive a few too, and once all the political favours are handed out, at the extreme end of things, we end up with Prince Edward Island having one seat per 40,000 voters, while Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario have one seat per 120,000.

Despite this, Quebec politicians want Quebec to not lose seats when the re-calculation of population is done and, in fact, the Bloc Quebecois has asked for a guarantee that Quebec will have at least 25% of the seats in the House of Commons, no matter their population.

The debate over seats in the House of Commons exposes a fatal structural deficiency in confederation, where the east demand to be able to maintain the power they hold, despite the fact that the west’s population has grown at a much faster rate.

Clearly, they’re not actually interested in democracy, they’re interested in power, but despite all this, Quebec’s position does actually contain a nugget of validity – yes, really!

One of Quebec’s primary concerns is to protect itself from overreach by the federal government in Ottawa, and on that point, Alberta agrees (even if we’d do far different things if we were left alone by Ottawa).

But the place to protect provincial rights is the Senate, not the House of Commons.

The House of Commons represents the people, and so should have seats distributed evenly by population, so every Canadian has an equal say.

The Senate should represent the provinces, and so should have seats distributed evenly by province, so every province has an equal say.

Instead, Senate seats are currently assigned on a regional basis:

  • 24 seats for Ontario
  • 24 seats for Quebec
  • 24 seats for the Maritime provinces
  • 24 seats for the Western provinces
  • 6 seats for Newfoundland and Labrador
  • 3 seats for the territories (1 each)

Obviously, this distribution is based on politics not on fairness, and if we ever want a Senate that can act as a real check on the power of the federal government on behalf of the provinces, then the seats must be distributed evenly.

Earlier today, federal Conservative Party leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre said that he supports provinces electing Senators and that, as Prime Minister, he would appoint Senators elected by provinces, rather than appoint political friends and allies as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has done up until now.

But Poilievre also said that Senate reform was unlikely as, in order to achieve Senate reform:

“We’d have to open the constitution, which would begin a whole new can of worms about every other grievance that people have with the constitutional structure of the nation.”

Poilievre is right that Senate reform would require opening up the constitution, but this doesn’t mean that we should shy away from doing it.

It’s long overdue for Canada to make significant changes to update an institution that has a fundamental bias against western Canada, and one of those changes must be reforming the Senate into an equal, elected, and effective Triple-E Senate.

Elmer MacKay once said:

“If we give the centre of our country superior status to the rest, how will we ever change it? It will be very difficult and may destroy us one way or another, because although we are proud Canadians, we have a strong attachment and loyalty to our provinces.”

This is exactly why provincial equality must be respected in the governance structure of Canada, before national division erodes to the point of no return.

An elected Senate with effective powers and an equal number of Senators per province is the key to preventing this erosion.

It’s time to renew the conversation, re-open the constitution, and restore balance to confederation.

Regards,

The Project Confederation Team

 

PS: Project Confederation doesn’t accept any government funding and never will. We think you should be free to choose, for yourself, which organizations to support. If you’re in a position to contribute financially to our important work, you can make a donation here.

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Alberta

Albertans have contributed $53.6 billion to the retirement of Canadians in other provinces

Published on March 27, 2025

By

From the Fraser Institute

By Tegan Hill and Nathaniel Li

Albertans contributed $53.6 billion more to CPP then retirees in Alberta received from it from 1981 to 2022

Albertans’ net contribution to the Canada Pension Plan —meaning the amount Albertans paid into the program over and above what retirees in Alberta
received in CPP payments—was more than six times as much as any other province at $53.6 billion from 1981 to 2022, finds a new report published today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

“Albertan workers have been helping to fund the retirement of Canadians from coast to coast for decades, and Canadians ought to know that without Alberta, the Canada Pension Plan would look much different,” said Tegan Hill, director of Alberta policy at the Fraser Institute and co-author of Understanding Alberta’s Role in National Programs, Including the Canada Pension Plan.

From 1981 to 2022, Alberta workers contributed 14.4 per cent (on average) of the total CPP premiums paid—Canada’s compulsory, government- operated retirement pension plan—while retirees in the province received only 10.0 per cent of the payments. Alberta’s net contribution over that period was $53.6 billion.

Crucially, only residents in two provinces—Alberta and British Columbia—paid more into the CPP than retirees in those provinces received in benefits, and Alberta’s contribution was six times greater than BC’s.

The reason Albertans have paid such an outsized contribution to federal and national programs, including the CPP, in recent years is because of the province’s relatively high rates of employment, higher average incomes, and younger population.

As such, if Alberta withdrew from the CPP, Alberta workers could expect to receive the same retirement benefits but at a lower cost (i.e. lower payroll tax) than other Canadians, while the payroll tax would likely have to increase for the rest of the country (excluding Quebec) to maintain the same benefits.

“Given current demographic projections, immigration patterns, and Alberta’s long history of leading the provinces in economic growth, Albertan workers will likely continue to pay more into it than Albertan retirees get back from it,” Hill said.

Understanding Alberta’s Role in National Programs, Including the Canada Pension Plan

  • Understanding Alberta’s role in national income transfers and other important programs is crucial to informing the broader debate around Alberta’s possible withdrawal from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).
  • Due to Alberta’s relatively high rates of employment, higher average incomes, and younger population, Albertans contribute significantly more to federal revenues than they receive back in federal spending.
  • From 1981 to 2022, Alberta workers contributed 14.4 percent (on average) of the total CPP premiums paid while retirees in the province received only 10.0 percent of the payments. Albertans net contribution was $53.6 billion over the period—approximately six times greater than British Columbia’s net contribution (the only other net contributor).
  • Given current demographic projections, immigration patterns, and Alberta’s long history of leading the provinces in economic growth and income levels, Alberta’s central role in funding national programs is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.
  • Due to Albertans’ disproportionate net contribution to the CPP, the current base CPP contribution rate would likely have to increase to remain sustainable if Alberta withdrew from the plan. Similarly, Alberta’s stand-alone rate would be lower than the current CPP rate.

 

Tegan Hill

Director, Alberta Policy, Fraser Institute

Nathaniel Li

Senior Economist, Fraser Institute
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Alberta

Alberta Institute urging Premier Smith to follow Saskatchewan and drop Industrial Carbon Tax

Published on March 27, 2025

By

From the Alberta Institute

Axe Alberta’s Industrial Carbon Tax

Aside from tariffs, carbon taxes have been the key topic of the election campaign so far, with Mark Carney announcing that the Liberals would copy the Conservatives’ long-standing policy to axe the tax – but with a big caveat.

You see, it’s misleading to talk about the carbon tax as if it were a single policy.

In fact, that’s what the Liberals would like you to think because it helps them hide all the other carbon taxes they’ve forced on Canadians and on the Provinces.

Broadly speaking, there are actually four types of carbon taxes in place in Canada:

  1. A federal consumer carbon tax
  2. A federal industrial carbon tax
  3. Various provincial consumer carbon taxes
  4. Various provincial industrial carbon taxes

Alberta was actually the first jurisdiction anywhere in North America to introduce a carbon tax in 2007, when Premier Ed Stelmach introduced a provincial industrial carbon tax.

Then, as we all know, the Alberta NDP introduced a provincial consumer carbon tax in 2017.

The provincial consumer carbon tax was short-lived, as the UCP repealed it in 2019.

But, unfortunately, the UCP failed to repeal the provincial industrial carbon tax at the same time.

Worse, by then, the federal Liberals had introduced a federal consumer carbon tax and a federal industrial carbon tax as well!

Flash forward to 2025, and the political calculus has changed dramatically.

Mark Carney might only be promising to get rid of the federal consumer carbon tax, but Pierre Poilievre is promising to get rid of both the federal consumer carbon tax and the federal industrial carbon tax.

This is a clear opportunity, and yesterday, Scott Moe jumped on it.

He announced that Saskatchewan will also be repealing its provincial industrial carbon tax.

Saskatchewan never had a provincial consumer carbon tax, which means that, within just a few weeks, people in Saskatchewan could be paying ZERO carbon tax of ANY kind.

Alberta needs to follow Saskatchewan’s lead.

The Alberta government should immediately repeal Alberta’s provincial industrial carbon tax.

There’s no excuse for our provincial government to continue burdening our industries with unnecessary costs that hurt competitiveness and deter investment.

These taxes make it harder for businesses to thrive, grow, and create jobs, especially when other provinces are taking action to eliminate similar policies.

Premier Danielle Smith must act now and eliminate the provincial industrial carbon tax in Alberta.

If you agree, please sign our petition calling on the Alberta government to Axe Alberta’s Industrial Carbon Tax today:

 

 

After you’ve signed, please send the petition to your friends, family, and wider network, so that every Albertan can have their voice heard!

– The Alberta Institute Team

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