The Regional Distribution of Federal Fiscal Balances: Who Pays, Who Gets and Why It Matters

This paper focuses on the regional redistribution of income, employment and population in Canada associated with federal tax, expenditure and transfer policies. Data on net federal fiscal balances by region (the differences between total federal revenues contributed by a region and the total federal expenditures in and transfers to the region) are presented for the period 1961-2018. Along with showing the nature and extent of the redistribution associated with federal fiscal policies over time, these data are used to evaluate the degree to which they are consistent with criteria of regional fairness and stabilization