Alberta has never received a cent of equalization.
Claimed by: Commonly stated by Alberta independence advocates
False: False as written according to the settled evidence. How we rate.
Summary
The grievance behind this is real, but the absolute claim is not quite right. Alberta did receive equalization in the program's early years and last qualified in the 1964-65 fiscal year, before a 1962 change that brought resource revenue into the formula pushed its fiscal capacity above the threshold. Since then Alberta has been a permanent non-recipient and has received only about 0.02 percent of all payments ever made. So the accurate statement is that Alberta has not received equalization in roughly sixty years, not that it never has.
Evidence
Alberta last received equalization in 1964-65 and has collected about 0.02 percent of all payments since the program began in 1957, making it a long-standing non-recipient.
Under the original 1957 formula Alberta qualified for payments despite high fiscal capacity, until a 1962 change adding 50 percent of resource revenue to the formula disqualified it.