Post by @mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca

Canada spends 1 of every 7 tax dollars on seniors benefits
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/first-reading-one-in-every-seven-canadian-tax-dollars-now-spent-on-seniors-benefits/

"Payments to Old Age Security as well as the Guaranteed Income Supplement are expected to hit $89.4 billion in the current fiscal year."

"It’s 55 [%] higher than the $57.4 billion in federal spending on health care. It’s 19 [%] higher than even the $75 billion military budget"

Canadian seniors are not, in general, poor. We should means-test #OAS and use the money elsewhere.

#CanPol #cdnpoli
#NationalPost

National Post

FIRST READING: One in every seven Canadian tax dollars now spent on seniors benefits

Old Age Security now completely consumes the combined revenue of the GST, customs duties and excise taxes

#oas #nationalpost #canpol #cdnpoli

0 Boosts

0 Likes

Paul Turnbull 🇨🇦

@Chigaze@cosocial.ca 9 min. ago

@mpjgregoire What you set the cap at? How many people does that represent? How much money would be spent enforcing that cap?

*|FNAME|*:kami:

@fname@kamloops.social 1 hr. ago

@mpjgregoire
How about we start means-testing fossil fuel companies?

M. Grégoire

@mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca 1 hr. ago

@fname Down with corporate subsidies!

*|FNAME|*:kami:

@fname@kamloops.social 1 hr. ago

@mpjgregoire
Agreed. Whenever it comes to ‘austerity’ and ‘tightening out belts’ inevitably it’s the underprivileged and vulnerable that are asked to make sacrifices, yet the massive amounts of public money flowing to companies that don’t even really need it are conveniently overlooked.

Jean-François Mezei

@jfmezei@cosocial.ca 2 hr. ago

@mpjgregoire if you have contributed to a retirement fund (via taxes) all your life, you should be able to receive the benefits. Canada Pension Plan (and CDPQ in Québec) make payments to individuals , not the government. You can’t use those funds to pay for fuel in an army helicopter or other govt expense. So unfair to state 1 inn7 dollars spent by govt are on oas.

M. Grégoire

@mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca 2 hr. ago

@jfmezei #OAS and GIS, the main programmes in the article, are not paid to an individual out of contributions saved up during that individual's working life; they are paid out of current general revenue. It's perfectly fair to discuss whether they are an optimal use of that revenue.

#CanPol #cdnpoli

Jean-François Mezei

@jfmezei@cosocial.ca 2 hr. ago

@mpjgregoire so when Canada pension plan invests billions in some company, where does that money come from?

M. Grégoire

@mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca 1 hr. ago

@jfmezei There are multiple government programmes aimed at helping seniors, and we shouldn't confuse them.

Since the mid-1990s, the CPP has been set up as a savings scheme, with the money from workers saved and invested in order to provide payments in retirement. (Before then it was a pay as you go scheme, with contributions made in 1990 sent to retirees in 1990.)

Sweet Home Alaberta 🇨🇦 🇺🇦 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇲🇽

@NMBA@mstdn.ca 2 hr. ago

@mpjgregoire
They haven't means tested OAS because older people vote at higher rates than youth. But now youth are becoming the dominant electoral block so there's the opportunity for change if youth get politically active...

M. Grégoire

@mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca 2 hr. ago

@NMBA What if a Prime Minister who's overwhelmingly popular with seniors were to say that he's asking them to make sacrifices so that their grandchildren will be able to buy their own houses?

Probably not going to happen.