Prosperity Bonus

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The Prosperity Bonus, also nicknamed Ralph bucks, announced in September 2005, is the name given to a program designed to pay money back to residents of the Canadian province of Alberta as a result of a massive oil-fuelled provincial budget surplus.

Alberta Premier Ralph Klein announced that each person in Alberta would receive $400 sometime in January 2006. This will take up about $1.4 billion (or 20%) of the $6.8 billion surplus. The money will be not be taxed by either the federal or provincial governments.

All Albertans who were residents of the province as of September 1 and filed a 2004 tax return with the Canada Revenue Agency were slated to receive the bonus, except for prisoners, who did not qualify. Cheques for Albertans under 18 years of age were payable only to their primary caregiver (the mother in most cases), thus leaving parents to determine how their children's share was to be distributed or used. Homeless Albertans also qualified—the government pledged to work with inner-city agencies to ensure that the homeless receive their money. Other questions were unanswered. For example, it was unknown how spouses fleeing abusive relationships would receive their bonus if they were housed in a shelter.

Klein said more prosperity bonuses may follow if oil prices remain high.

[edit] Criticisms

The program generated controversy both inside and outside Alberta. Although few, if any, Albertans turned down their cheques, some residents criticized what they saw as a pointless giveaway, and preferred to see the excess money put toward long-term benefits such as tax cuts or the abolition of health care premiums.

Outside Alberta, some believe that the program will generate resentment from Canadians who will see cheques delivered to every Albertan while they pay well over a dollar a litre for gasoline and record heating bills. A poll published by CTV and the Globe and Mail suggested that a majority of Canadians outside Alberta wanted the Albertans to share their wealth with the rest of the country.^{[citation needed]} The same poll suggested that Albertans were strongly opposed to any such proposal, noting that the province already contributes nearly twice the value of its total projected surplus to the other provinces in the form of equalization payments.

Some Canadians have asked how the payments will escape the general definition of income under both the federal and Alberta Income Tax Acts and thus would avoid being taxable. The answer is that in the provincial legislation drafted to authorize the program defined the payments so that they had to be considered by the federal government to be a "deemed overpayment of income tax".

Ralphbucks also made it into national media after a handful of non-Albertans came forward to admit they had received Ralphbucks cheques to which they were not entitled to, prompting criticism from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

[edit] Charity

In a web poll by CTV Calgary, 5% of respondents said they would donate their prosperity bonus to charity.^{[citation needed]} If 5% of Albertans donated this cheque, then approximately $70 million would be donated.

[edit] External links

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