That is a red herring.  In fact Wente's observations are right on the mark.  I grew up in a small town in rural Ontario, and I now live in a larger wealthier expensive city.  The economy of scale is definitely much lower there - cost of living much lower (housing cost is 1/3 of the city I now live in), opportunities very limited, wages much lower, unemployment is higher too.  It makes no sense for government to impose wage cutoff uniform to the entire province, when these smaller rural economies cannot handle it.  Those small towns operate fine on their own lower-revenue economy.  Everyone is poorer, but the lifestyle is perhaps better due to low cost of living, without the need for government fracking up the economic balance and the business models of wee shops.