The other day I wrote about a report indicating that Canadians are no better off today than they were 15 years ago. Many people have emailed me (why they don’t use the forums is a mystery to me) and other voices are being reported in the enlightened media like the Toronto Sun.
IF YOU COULD go back in time and give Ontario families the alarming report released last week—showing the prosperity of Canadians has barely budged in 15 years—some would have done something drastic. “I would have packed up our family in our car and headed south on the I-75,” said Jacqueline Bynon, a Port Perry woman in her 50s who is running a small business and raising twin 14-year-old girls with her husband Ian.
“We would have moved to the United States, where a spade is a spade. Where if you can work hard, you either succeed or you fail.
“In Canada, where is the incentive to become successful? The government has made it disappear. For every step forward we take there are two steps back.”
[…] The after-tax income per worker has increased just 3.6% during that time. Meaning whatever people could afford 15 years ago is just about what they can afford now—and that has left many feeling like they have wasted a decade and a half of hard work. An increase that small hasn’t been seen since the 1930s…
[…] When Whitby’s Steve Jones, who has a 9-month-old daughter, saw the report, it capsulated the struggles he has faced trying to give his family the life they have always planned for.
“I was sick, I was absolutely sick,” he said after fully realizing he is in the exact same economic position now he was in 1990 despite years of hard work.
Jones, 38, planned tirelessly for his economic well-being with his wife.
For years, they sacrificed going out to movies, dinners or shows. Jones said they took precautions to ensure they retained good credit. They did it to buy a house in Whitby. They did it so his wife didn’t have to work so she could spend the first few formative years of their daughter’s life at home.
“We thought that was really, really important,” Jones said. “But with the latest tax increases, we’ve been having a lot of discussions as to whether we can do that now.
“This is impacting my daughter’s upbringing.”
[…] For example, the top income tax rate in 2004 was 46.41% starting at $113,804. But workers earning $70,000 faced a 43.41% tax rate.
The report shows that government benefit claw-backs—such as eye exams and chiropractic work—and sales tax on purchases mean people can effectively pay 80% in tax.
80% TAX
“When I saw I was losing 80 cents of every dollar it made me want to lose my breakfast and lunch and dinner,” Jones said.
“I have worked very hard in my life. My wife worked in fast-food restaurants to make it through college.
“And now, I look at my last pay stub and we can’t even go out to a local restaurant for dinner after paying the mortgage. It’s really hard just to maintain.
“I am still amazed there haven’t been more protests in the streets about what our government has been doing to us. In many other places in the world, there would have been riots in the streets.”
UPDATE: Link to story corrected/fixed.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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