The federal government collects revenues and makes expenditures in all provinces. Per capita federal revenues and spending vary from province to province, depending on the economic and demographic conditions in each province.
Sources of federal revenues include personal and corporate income tax, the goods and services tax and social insurance contributions. Federal spending encompasses transfers to persons (through the Canada Pension Plan and employment insurance, for example), transfers to provinces (through programs like Equalization and the Canada Health Transfer), as well as federal spending on goods and services to support government operations.
This HillStudy examines the distribution of federal revenues and expenditures from 2011 to 2020 by province; data on Canadian territories are excluded from this publication for reasons of scale. The paper concludes that federal expenditures have a clear redistributive effect by transferring resources from more affluent to less affluent Canadians, regardless of province of residence.
Read the full text of the HillStudy: Distribution of Federal Revenues and Expenditures by Province, 2011–2020: A Snapshot at the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Emmanuel Preville, Library of Parliament
Categories: Economics and finance, Executive summary, Government, Parliament and politics