Jeff Burgar
Former High Prairie mayor George Keay liked to describe Grande Prairie as “a giant black hole, sucking in everything in the Peace Country.”

That was true 15 years ago, and is still true today. Yes, there are local stores, business services and industry that help stem the flow of money from the region. It’s still an uphill battle.

That’s the way it works, everywhere. Even though the world is growing, rich get richer and big get bigger.

This should be troubling in places like rural western Canada, and even in places like Alberta and Saskatchewan. People are not the only thing being sucked into black holes. Wealth, power and influence also flow.

In Canada, the Greater Toronto Area, accounts for fully 20 per cent of all the output of Canada. The GTA is the second largest auto manufacturing hub, after Detroit, in North America. Twenty-five per cent of the money in the GTA comes from financial services, which of course happens as the GTA sucks in dollars from every corner of Canada. These days, the GTA is working to become the tech capital of Canada. The black hole continues.

But notice: The total economic output of the GTA, its Gross Domestic Product, is almost identical to Alberta, $323 billion to $326 billion. The land mass of the GTA is 7,124 sq km. Alberta is 93 times larger. But because there are more people in the GTA, they have more influence across all of Canada than Alberta.

There are 6.4 million people in the Toronto area. Alberta has 4.2 million, so loses out. Supposedly, that’s the proper way for our “representation by population” system to work.

But now consider this: Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have a combined total 6.7 million people, compared to the Toronto area population of 6.4 million. Almost the same eh? But now, the total land mass of the three provinces is a spectacular 275 times greater. Almost 2 million square km compared to Toronto’s piddly 7,124 square km. And money wise, the output of the three provinces together is 50 per cent more [$470 billion] compared to the Toronto area’s $323 billion.

Yet, because of “rep by pop” the dinky Toronto area alone swings as much power in Ottawa as the entire three provinces combined!

Is this fair? Absolutely not!

But, that’s the way it was written into law. And it seems to be doing exactly what was originally intended: Keep power and money in the big centres, and keep even more coming.

This is very much the same thing happening right here in Alberta, as we talk about electoral boundaries. Right now, under “redistribution,” the wheels are turning, to take away voting power from rural and northern Alberta, to give to Edmonton and Calgary. It’s all about keeping power and money in the big centres.

The Toronto area is a black hole, sucking the rest of Canada dry. It really isn’t much different at all from the black holes of Edmonton or Calgary, also sucking our districts and counties, settlements, First Nations and small towns dry.