| The purpose of the thesis is to examine some of the implications of the policy initiatives taken by both levels of government during the 1974-80 period (i.e., from the OPEC oil embargo and subsequent quadrupling of posted world oil prices to the introduction of the National Energy Program, or NEP). A survey of the fiscal instruments employed by both the federal and the oil-producing provincial levels of government to distribute the oil revenues generated in Canada is presented. The focus of this survey is primarily on the pre-NEP regime and the immediate post-NEP regime. The remainder of the thesis then deals with some of the distributional and efficiency aspects of these tax regimes.;One of the distributional implications of the intergovernmental revenue-sharing from oil production, as defined by the underlying tax regime in place, is that the pre-NEP tax regime, for example, will have repercussions for provincial revenues (for both the "have" and the "have-not" provinces the thesis examines the ramifications of the pre-NEP regime on the equalization program (in place at that time). Specifically, the implications for the magnitude and the funding of the equalization payments are examined. Correspondingly, a recommendation favouring an alternative system of equalization--a two-tier program which with the second tier taking the form of an interprovincial revenue-sharing pool (and focussing essentially on revenues under sole provincial control)--is presented and evaluated.;The thesis also examines the economic efficiency aspects of the pre- and post-NEP tax regimes. In particular, we address the issue of an inefficient allocation of resources within the oil industry itself. That is, based on the assumption that the pure-profits tax is economically efficient (i.e., optimal) then the pre- and post-NEP tax regimes are predicted to distort the allocation of exploration and developmental capital employed in the production of alternative types of oil (e.g., conventional, secondary, tertiary, non-conventional and frontier oil). The result therefore, is an efficiency loss incurred by Canada. An attempt to illustrate the magnitude of this efficiency loss is also presented. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI. |
