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| | cric.ca - Canada's Portal - Quick Guide (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08) |
 | | Most of the world's federations have some kind of formal equalization scheme, that is, a way of transferring of funds to states or provinces for the purpose of correcting for differences among sub-national governments in their capacity to raise revenue and fund programs (the United States is one notable exception). |
 | | As the economist Robin Boadway points out, equalization is important to federations because it ensures that all citizens, regardless of which state or province they live in, are treated equally in the sense that they can have access to the same range of public policies. |
 | | Speaking at the International Conference on Federalism 2002, which follows up on the 1999 Conference held in Mont-Tremblant, Canada, the Honourable Stéphane Dion, President of the Privy Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, stated that equalization is useful in a federation, not only for considerations of equity, but also for reasons of efficiency. |
| www.cric.ca /en_html/guide/equalization/equalization.html (1046 words) |
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