The Saskatchewan government has launched yet another expensive advertising campaign. This time the goal is to persuade you, dear taxpayer, to be very upset about how the federal equalization formula rips off Saskatchewan.

The province plans to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to put pressure on the federal government and they're not afraid of exaggerating a little to make their case.

The equalization program was established in the 1950s to help poor provinces maintain a satisfactory level of government services at reasonable levels of taxation. Ottawa measures the provinces' ability to raise revenue and then gives out money based on a complicated formula. With the high oil and gas prices, Saskatchewan no longer receives equalization payments. However, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia negotiated a deal with Ottawa enabling them to rake in billions in oil and gas revenues and receive equalization handouts every year.

The Saskatchewan government wants the same deal. Now it seems all good things promised by the Saskatchewan government are somehow contingent upon receiving more generous support payments from Ottawa.

In fact, if you believe the government, handouts from Ottawa will help us all achieve our dreams and desires - including lower taxes. Indeed, the only thing holding us back as a province is the equalization program. The government's website says so.

You can almost hear the gentle chords of John Lennon's Imagine playing as you read the government's campaign message:

"Imagine how a fair equalization deal could help us build the province that we have all dreamed of, a strong and vibrant province where our young people will find their futures-So what is stopping us The question really is, WHO is stopping us "

Since when are our collective dreams and ambitions contingent on handouts from Alberta and Ontario

In truth, equalization does the exact opposite of what is promised. It actually creates incentives to not develop a strong and vibrant economy. Think of it this way: If equalization was everything the province made it out to be, wouldn't the Atlantic provinces be Canada's juggernaut They have, after all, been recipients of generous handouts for decades.

How does equalization hold a province back Consider taxes, for example.

The equalization formula is based on the province's "fiscal capacity." To put it simply, equalization looks at a province and says "if you can afford to cut taxes, you don't need as much welfare." The feds reduce the payments to the provinces if they cut taxes.

If a government wants to cut taxes, it's hit with a double whammy. First, the government must forego the revenue it collected before the tax was reduced. Second, it must see its transfers from Ottawa reduced as well. In fact, the same rule applies to economic development as a whole. The more successful a province becomes, the less welfare it gets.

It's tough enough to get a government to cut taxes without the strong disincentives equalization brings. The equalization program can't and won't save us from decades of disastrous economic policies. The government needs to bust out of the vicious and destructive welfare mentality and create prosperity on our own terms, on our own merits.

Canada's most prosperous provinces are precisely the ones that are least reliant on handouts - Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. Now Imagine a campaign to move Saskatchewan in that direction.