The gov't finally accepted 老婆 as a resident of Canada despite the fact she's been here for over two years now. Friends of hers on student visas were accepted faster. Needless to say that, as a Canadian-born citizen who really likes this country and pays his fair share of taxes, I felt it was a major snub. Getting seven months worth of benefits all at once was rather nice though. That was until I read a little lower and realized that the Universal Child Care Benefit is taxable. Yes, TAXABLE. The $100/month of insufficient funds Canada's New Government gives families with children under six so that they can pay for $600+/month day care is taxable. We will see the $100/month but, come April, we'd better have about $600 to hand back to Stephen Harper. I certainly hope he didn't win over any voters with this scheme in the last election. If you do any searching on-line, you'll quickly find agreement that the Conservatives have set back advances in equality and the reduction of child poverty by a significant amount. I wasn't a fan of King Ralph here in Alberta but at least when he handed out his $400 of free money he didn't ask for half back at tax time.
Speaking of taxes, the populace seems to be easily swayed by another point off the GST. The first percent taken off the GST was accompanied by an extra half percent on personal income taxes. I haven't heard if that's the case this time as well 'cause last time Steve didn't publicize the income tax increase as much as he publicized the GST cut. If I check out some statistics for Alberta from the 2001 census, I see that my family is a little ahead of average in terms of income. Since most groceries aren't taxed, the average Alberta family will save about $450/year from that 1% cut. Except, it can be argued that the GST cut is simply an upper-class tax cut. Low income families must spend most of their money on groceries which means they pay less GST and will see very little savings in a GST cut. It's the people saving $1000 in tax on a new Hummer who will see the savings. Low income families probably paid more tax with the income tax increase than they saved in the GST cut. I guess when Conservatives say they'll cut taxes, they don't mean they'll cut everyone's tax.
Glad to see that the government chosen by the people doesn't care at all about the people.
