QUEBEC - A solution for the so-called fiscal gap will benefit everyone, even though not all provinces agree on how to do it, Premier Jean Charest said Wednesday.
"It doesn't have to favour one province or another, but it has to permit each government to assume its constitutional responsibilities," Charest said Wednesday.
Prior to the last federal election, the Conservatives led by Stephen Harper promised to reform the $12-billion equalization program. That program is supposed to help so-called have-not provinces maintain national standards for services and programs.
Quebec wants the revenues of all 10 provinces used in calculating equalization payments and it wants natural resource revenues included in the equation.
There have been media reports that the impending federal budget will exempt half of a province's revenues from non-renewable natural resources, such as oil and gas, from the formula.
The idea has not received an enthusiastic response from provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan.
The two Atlantic provinces fought bitterly to have offshore natural resources excluded from equalization payments in order to allow them to shed the economic doldrums that have plagued the East Coast provinces.
Saskatchewan was promised a 100 per cent exemption for its natural resource revenues, which could put an extra $800 million a year in the province's coffers.
The question is likely to dominate a meeting of the premiers's Council of the Federation in Toronto on Feb. 7.
The provinces seem to be evenly split on the issue.
"When it comes to equalization, there has never been consensus in the past, there is not consensus now and I don't anticipate it in the short term," Charest said at a news conference to announce a local Liberal candidate.
The only thing the provinces agree on is that Ottawa return post-secondary funding levels to 1990 levels, like it recently did health spending.
