Elliot Lake Ontario Versus Wood Buffalo, Alberta

My upcoming column in the Economy Lab looks at reliance on government transfer income (i.e. CPP, OAS, EI, social assistance, etc.) and income taxes generated to come up with communities that are ‘have’ (i.e. contributing more but taking out less) and have-not.  This is a different take on our traditional view of have and have-not at the provincial level but I think it is an important analysis because you end up with places like Halifax as a ‘have’ urban centre in a ‘have-not’ province.  Halifax contributes much more than the national average in terms of average income taxes paid per taxfiler and takes out much less in terms of government transfer income per dollar of employment income.

Of course the analysis doesn’t look at broader factors such as direct government payroll (which supports income in government towns) or public spending.

You can view a document showing all of Canada’s CMAs and CAs for these two metrics by clicking here.

The comparison of the two bookends in Canada – Elliot Lake, Ontario and Wood Buffalo, Alberta is shown below.

 

PS – it’s taxfiler not ‘taxfile’ as shown in the source under the tables.  Can’t edit the jpg.

 

 

 

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