Hard at work to secure welfare of Canadians | Your stories | Discussion forum

This is (sadly) the funniest thing my wife and I have seen in a long time, Rex, thanks! Please post the link.

I had a chuckle when Trudeau appeared today and started off by talking about cleaning up abandoned wells which would create jobs. If he announces a program tomorrow for college students to paint all the wooden fences in Canada it would be about as relevant at this point.

Oh my. I feel so much safer.

Any retirees on pension here?. Have you noticed none of the freebies are for us? I certainly hope if higher taxes are required to cover these expenses that we are not expected to pay them!!

GICinvestor said
Oh my. I feel so much safer.

Any retirees on pension here?. Have you noticed none of the freebies are for us? I certainly hope if higher taxes are required to cover these expenses that we are not expected to pay them!!  

For what it's worth, the mandatory RRIF minimum withdrawal requirements were lowered indefinitely for the duration of what the federal government perceives, notionally, as the "COVID-19 emergency."

Grocery, drug, and other notionally "essential" services (a misnomer that, through bad communication, some businesses have felt they need to stay open with such a designation even if it is unprofitable for them to do so!) have "seniors shopping hours," typically between 7-8 am or one hour before their public opening time.

Low income seniors benefit from the one-time, minimum annual top of $300 to the GST/HST credit. In British Columbia, and perhaps other provinces, low income seniors benefit from the one-time annual top-up of up to $300 of the LICAT (Low Income Climate Action Tax) credit.

Seniors, together with all adults, benefit from a new mental health counselling service, with unlimited single ticket requests for professional counselling sessions from professional counsellors and clinical counsellors of Homewood Health Solutions, an Employee Assistance Program provider, at https://ca.portal.gs. This is a fascinating resource that provides virtual and telephone based counselling services for mental health issues to all Canadians, something absent from Canada's medicare system. The federal government, obviously trying to control its costs, does emphasize self-serve resources on the site first and does say counsellors will query you to see what, if any, resources you used first. Still, I hope the funding for this continues post-COVID-19. The B.C. government has launched Here2Talk.ca, a similar resource for current, registered post-secondary students. This service is provided by Morneau Shepell, of which you know who is a significant non-controlling shareholder of the publicly-traded concern (which makes me wonder if the federal procurement processes specifically excluded from consideration Morneau Shepell for the provision of the federal service, given that Ethics Commissioner's prior Morneau Report outcome).

Finally, while not direct financial aid to all retirees, seniors benefit disproportionately from the federal/provincial largesse of the increased COVID-19-related health care expenditures in order to preserve the lives of those infected. This should not be discounted or forgotten, and all seniors should be immensely grateful for this.

Still, I do take your point in that low and moderate income seniors who have to work in retirement are not, as written, eligible from the CERB because government and private pension benefits are not included as forms of allowable income and also, in many cases, OAS, GIS, modest CPP, and Spouses Allowance add up to at least $1,000 per month. So, like students, the CERB excludes low and modest income seniors (i.e., below $35,000 for singles and below $45,000 for couples). 🙁

Cheers,
Doug

Sure, you can try to divert it to Conservatives are no better, yadda, yadda, but in fact it was just a clip showing a guy (repeatedly!) asking yes/no questions and the lady (repeatedly!) being completely unable or unwilling to so answer. That was very funny!

Doug, I think you've seen on here that many seniors, just like many folks of all ages, argue from a point of self interest. That, to me, pretty much eliminates the validity of their position. Sadly Canadians now look to make sure the "freebies are for us" (as if freebies actually exist in the first place), that someone else pay the taxes we personally don't benefit from. But, Doug, I can tell you I DO remember a time, long ago, when most grown-ups would consider the good of the community, the society, but now it seems axiomatic that grown-ups advocate for our own "group", our tribe. I look to the younger folks to revive that old ethic of personal sacrifice for the benefit of the whole - I need to have some hope.