I received my weekly commentary, Let’s Talk Taxes from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation by Kevin Gaudet, a federal director. This week he talked about equalization payment bailouts to the provinces.

These payments are based on a formula driven in part by the provincial governments revenues of strong economies. Equalization isn’t like most other programs. Its costs, or payments, are designed to fluctuate based on performances of the provinces.

When things go well payments rise and are given to those provinces that are not doing so well. B.C. no longer receives payments and it did only for a short couple of years after the NDP decade of decline of the 90s.

The receiving provinces have been getting a boost the last few years with the good Canadian economy, and payments have increased by 72 per cent from $8.6 billion to $14.8 billion. With the decline in our economy those payments, rightly so, should decline. The problem is that the receiving provinces are now crying foul and asking the federal government to cap the monies at the high rate and run an even larger debt to do so. The only conceivable reason they are begging for this bailout is poor planning and overspending. It’s like spending your winnings before your lottery ticket is drawn.

Are we becoming so accustomed to receiving welfare that we are demanding all levels of our governments, from the municipal level up, to charge more taxes, go in debt so we can carry on not using our God-given talents and creating our own money, spending it wisely and not demanding bailouts?

Maybe, if governments did not go in debt, raise taxes to pay the interest and charge more tax with the promise that they will give it back, (knowing full well that less than 50 per cent of monies collected ever gets back to us) to help those less fortunate. Now I whole-heartedly agree we must take care of the needy, but it appears with all of the different handouts and grant systems we are all becoming needy.

We don’t keep enough of our income to pay our own way, and therefore ask governments to help with things we should be paying ourselves if they left us with our money to begin with.