Editing Canada (section)

===Provinces and territories===
Canada is a federation composed of ten [[province]]s and three [[territory (administrative division)|territories]]. In turn, these may be [[List of regions of Canada|grouped into regions]]: [[Western Canada]], [[Central Canada]], [[Atlantic Canada]], and [[Northern Canada]] ([[Eastern Canada]] refers to Central Canada and Atlantic Canada together). Provinces have more autonomy than territories. The provinces are responsible for most of Canada's social programs (such as [[Health care in Canada|health care]], [[Education in Canada|education]], and [[welfare]]) and together collect more revenue than the federal government, an almost unique structure among federations in the world. Using its spending powers, the federal government can initiate national policies in provincial areas, such as the [[Canada Health Act]]; the provinces can opt out of these, but rarely do so in practice. [[Equalization payments]] are made by the federal government to ensure that reasonably uniform standards of services and taxation are kept between the richer and poorer provinces.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-516-x/sectionh/4057752-eng.htm|title=Government Finance|last=Bird|first=Richard M|date=October 22, 2008|work=Historical Statistics of Canada|publisher=Statistics Canada|accessdate=2011-05-23}}</ref>
{{Canada image map}}
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