Sue's Blog

Friday, December 15, 2006

6 Little Words (Repeat)

As we head for the fight with Ottawa on Equalization remember...

Ok stop the bluff - Harper should of course honour the intent or what we meant or what we thought and on and on...
But Premier let's talk about the problem and why it exists.

Clause 4 of the Valentine's Day (Sweetheart Deal) says the following - I will highlight the 6 little words that the Premier missed!

Commencing in 2006-07, and continuing through 2011-12, the annual offset payments shall be equal to 100 per cent of any reductions in Equalization payments resulting from offshore resource revenues. The amount of additional offset payment for a year shall be calculated as the difference between the Equalization payment that would be received by the province under the Equalization formula as it exists at the time if the province received no offshore petroleum resource revenues in that year, and the Equalization payment for the province in that year under the Equalization formula as it exists at the time, net of any payments made with respect to the existing Atlantic Accord or Equalization offset provisions.

If these 6 little words read as it exists at the signing of this agreement - there would be nothing Harper or anybody else could do.

The question to the Premier is "how could he be so short-sighted when signing such an important deal. You can drive a mac-truck through-er.

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