Is Newfoundland and Labrador Suffering for its Size?

Recently Newfoundland and Labrador Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan made a statement to the effect that the Province should be treated more like a Territory in respect to federal transfer payments from Ottawa. This comment apparently landed him in a little hot water with Newfoundland and Labrador’s only federal cabinet minister, Mr. John No-Effort, who immediately scoffed at the idea and all but laughed at the comment rather than listening and perhaps taking some time to understand it.

Thanks once again John. It’s reassuring to see you haven’t changed your standard approach of fighting for Canada and against your own Province.

Of course most of Canada feels that the Province already receives more than its fair share of federal funds and will, like John Efford, immediately point to the $2 billion dollar cheque “given” to the Province recently as a prime example of this.

Never mind that the $2 billion accounts for only 47% of revenues from the Province’s offshore and that getting it only reflects the fact that the Oil produced exists in Newfoundland’s territory. The fact is, if it was on land and not under the water revenues would have been coming to the province from day one as they do in Alberta, which bye the way received special treatment at the hands of Ottawa in the 50’s when its oil industry was starting.

Speaking of Alberta, a recent study has provided a clear example of the kind of situation that may have led Minister Sullivan to make his statement about transfer reforms. A recently released report identifies Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada’s poorest Province, as being second only to Alberta, Canada’s richest, in health care spending. Yet the Province continues to have some of the Country’s longest wait times. Why is this?

It’s quite simple really. Perhaps even simple enough for John Efford to understand should he take a minute to look at it. The reason is because we have a vast geographical region with a very small population. This requires the Province to maintain many more hospitals and clinics than it would like and along with that comes the operation of more equipment, doctors, nurses and the list goes on and on.

Think about it folks, the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador has a land area of just over 400,000 thousand square kilometers and a population of about 500,000 people. To put this in perspective, this means that if every man, woman and child wanted to live nearly a Kilometer apart, they wouldn’t have a problem.

This folks (take some notes John) is why I believe Newfoundland and Labrador has always had an issue with the way transfer payments are calculated. Since payments are determined based on population this leaves the Province at a clear disadvantage. After all, when the population base is only the size of a small city and the territory is several times larger than the rest of the Atlantic region, it isn’t easy.

I believe this may be one of the reasons for Minister Sullivan’s recent statement and I also believe that once again these arguments will be ignored by Ottawa, thanks in no small part to Ottawa’s representatives in Newfoundland and Labrador (especially John No-Effort).

If elected officials from the Province won’t even entertain the concept of transfer payment reform, in fact don’t even want to hear it mentioned, what chance does the Province have in convincing the rest of the Country?