The Late, Great, Fiscal Imbalance

The Fiscal Imbalance (requiescat in pacem) is dead. Jim Flaherty says so; it must be true:

Mr. Speaker, the long, tiring, unproductive era of bickering between the provincial and federal governments is over.

So now that it is dead, can someone, in the hushed and reverent tones reserved for the dead — de mortuis nihil nisi bonum — explain what, exactly, in blivverin' blue blazes The Fiscal Imbalance was in the first place?

It would be very useful for recognition purposes, in the highly unlikely, improbable, nay nearly impossible event, that someone — maybe a provincial Premier, maybe a separatist — at some point in the distant future, spots what they think is The Fiscal Imbalance once again walking the earth, commingling with us living mortals.