Did This Budget Do Anything for Your Family?
I use the word "family" in its most inclusive sense, not only in the narrow "blond soccer mom, two kids, lawn-mowing dad" sense. I thought it would be interesting to get some responses to see if indeed any Canadian families will actually benefit from the billions in spending. The comments section here will serve as an open forum, an ad hoc cross section, if any one would like to leave a response.
posted by Susan at 11:19 PM
5 Comments:
It did absolutely "nothing" for me and my husband. We are being punished because we "couldn't" have children. We were among the DINKS - (double income no kids), but I am now out of work, babyboomer who no one wants to hire because of my age and no tax breaks whatsover othern than the pitiful 1% GST.
In fact, in doing his taxes, my husband even claiming me as a dependant come out far worse than he did last year.
I pay property taxes which mostly go for education for other people's kids. I don't mind my citizen duty of contributing to the education of the kids, by why punish me because I don't have any?
What's next - a flogging?
I have two adult daughters and one grandchild. For most of their lives I was a single parent. I had to cash out my RRSPs to help them with university (law school and masters in political science), so I paid tax on the RRSPs and was limited to a $5000 per year transfered deduction on their tuition. It cost me a bundle.
The reason I had to help was that they couldn't get a large enough loan to cover their costs, so they had to find money on top of their loans elsewhere. So they are both now two years out of school with significant loan payments.
My oldest is with a young man who also has student debt. They both have relatively well paying jobs but they can't afford to buy a house in Victoria where they live, so they rent, which is a large chunk of their monthly expenditure.
They found a wonderful daycare for their son because my daughter works at the university but they live in fear that they will not find a space for their second child, not yet on the way. They are also afraid to move elsewhere for promotions because of the worry about not finding good daycare.
The $2000 child tax deduction which is really only $321 is like the $100 a month. It amounts to nothing in the grand scheme of things.
So the targeted group, young families, nothing in the budget that's going to make their lives better and they're still paying the increased taxes from the last budget.
My other daughter has a good job but wants to go back to school to become a professor but the universities are in decline with less money and less enrollment. She of course has student loan payments and doesn't want to make any major move until the loan is paid off.
My current partner and I are in jobs with little opportunity of increased pay. We have less and less disposable income even though they keep saying there is low inflation we are and still paying a huge wack of tax. The health care system is falling apart around us. In BC the health care system is in complete chaos.
My partner who is a welder, on his feet all day, waited two years for an appointment with the knee specialist. He can't have the operation because if it doesn't work out properly, he'll be without a job and poor. Nothing in the budget for him.
As for me, I'm a woman and work in the arts and culture sector so you can be sure with this government there will never be anything in the budget for me.
So much for hard-working families!!
And my children's father is First Nations - certainly nothing in the budget from that sector.
Anon,
health and education are provincial jurisdictions. Your Premier just got a fist full of cash.
I don't have any kids. I don't benefit.
I'm a 32 year old, professional, with a wife and two kids. Wife is currently between jobs. The $310 per child tax benefit will be very much appreciated.
Anybody who says that $300 isn't useful to a family, probably hasn't ever been responsible for providing for one. No matter how much you make, you always seem to be waiting for that next paycheck. $300 is a months groceries, a car payment, all the utilities for a month, or Christmas presents. Certainly this will help me.
It would not have mattered what Harper had put in the budget, that first anonymous poster would have been upset. It is clear that she thinks that someone else should be responsible for all of her misfortunes, poor choices, and problems.
Suck it up. This budget helps. Even my wife, who hates politics and the conservatives, is happy with this.
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