The Minister of Finance seeks your input;
As I build the budget every year, I hear from many experts, like private sector economists, academics and business representatives, as well as my Cabinet colleagues. But I also need to hear from Canadians from across the country and from all walks of life. […]
I encourage you to answer any or all of the questions that matter to you on this online consultation and share them with your friends, family, and colleagues. All Canadians have a stake in the answers to these questions, so all Canadians should have a say in answering them.
Income splitting for families…income splitting for families.
I am hoping the Cons do the right thing and honour their promise.
@bc.
Done deal – will be in budget in spring.
Possible that income splitting for couples w/o minor children will come a year later – depends on whether there is a surplus.
Cut the CBC subsidy to $0.
Its interesting how you can manage to respond to every question with an outright statement or suggestion to defund or sell the CBC.
regulation on business and laws that prevent free access to markets are a problem. indian affairs should be scrapped and all employed there fired. shut the senate. reduce immigration to a max of 35 thousand a year and only allow those in whom can actually benefit the country. I could go on and on.
Eliminating subsidies for all green programs seems to work too.
That was so much fun! I haven’t had a good rant like that in a long time.
Instead of income splitting, how about moving to a flat tax with no deductions? That’s the ne plus ultra of fair.
Thanks that was fun,of course suggestion that we fire 50% of bureaucrats every year will be read by bureaucrats and recommended to the minister. Not.
Ditto for term limits in the bureaus. If they be so competent, then private industry would seek them out, not need to hire them for compliance to regulations.
Taxes should be voluntary.Let government convince us that what they do is valuable.
After all Healthcare? Care?.Waiting times continue to grow.
Law and order? That depends, are you a conservative or a person with status?
Contract law? If it is politically expedient, otherwise sole source contracts.
CBC? All the news we think you should hear? The bias and omissions of these kleptocrats is never ending.
Pretty much the cessation of any and all Crown Corporations will do and any Identity Industry ministries such as SoW, IA, etc. plus the Canadian Human Rights Commission which is the tax funded Lawfare-sharp-pointy-end of the Identity Industry here in Canada.
Lower taxes for everyone. The bureaucracy withers and dies without taxes. Regulations become obsolete with no one to administer them.
The UN and reduction of foreign aid can be mentioned as options to reduce (eliminate) costs, as well.
Radical thought. Do you think we could get a law that would cut off leftists from their own programs?
My reasoning is this. Children are the workers and tax payers of the future. If you support abortion, you are defunding your future medical care, retirement income (CPP, UI, etc.), everything. So why should such people receive the benefits tomorrow that they are cutting off at the knees today?
Income splitting: why should married people get special bennies that others don’t?
I thought of that too. The double-income-no-kids households are depending on someone else’s children to pay their pensions—and blowing up the cost of housing for good measure (the money they should be spending on raising up their children they throw at fancy houses and condos in privileged neighbourhoods, when they don’t simply squander it on garbage nobody needs and for which nobody with children can afford the money or time).
I suggested to the Minister of Finance that the Canada Pension Plan should no longer pay out full benefits to any adult who cannot or will not recognize at least two children as their own, or, in case of dispute, cannot demonstrate to the satisfaction of a court that they paid the cost of raising at least two children to maturity who were considered to be able and willing to support themselves and pay their share of their parents’ benefits. Specifically, the court should be satisfied that at least two children of the applicants as of the time of their application for benefits:
1. were still living as of the date of application;
2. had, at that time, lived in Canada for at least three of the past four years;
3. had finished high school;
4. were married and had not divorced unless granted on the grounds of infidelity, abuse, neglect or abandonment by the other spouse;
5. had never, since age 18, been dismissed from gainful employment with cause, nor left employment voluntarily, except to accept other employment, to become self-employed, or, for women, to marry;
6. had not filed for bankruptcy in the last seven years;
7. had never spent more than 72 hours in jail nor been convicted of any crime meriting imprisonment or a fine of more than $500;
8. had, if not married women, not been out of employment, education or training for longer than six months at a time since age 18, nor been dependent on their parents for economic support, in cash or in kind, for longer than six months since age 18.
Couples with only one child should only expect half the normal benefit at age 65; DINKs, deadbeat dads, and neighbourhood rakes and bicycles of all races and creeds should be advised to apply for help in their old age to the estate of Dr. Morgentaler.
Actually married people paid more taxes than single people.
The government combined the married couple’s income calling it a ‘household income’ which put them in a higher tax bracket.
It’s a violation of the Charter right to freedom of religion that we’ve suffered since my wife and I were married in 1983.
After taking the time to complete the survey I got a server error message saying it could not be sent. Pretty annoying to say the least.
One point to consider with regard to income-splitting in families: One can clearly see the scenario in which divorced women income-split with their children, thereby reducing their taxes but that additional economic benefit is not factored into the support that their ex-husbands have to pay. It is an excellent initiative, but it should be done in conjunction with a serious look at introducing real equality into family law, an area of legislation and regulation that has been dominated for at least the past thirty years by people with a visceral desire to punish fathers.
Dick Slater is off his meds again
Done.
Get your @!*&#*g noses out of my business!
Great link. Take the survey. Be sensible.
What can the government do to help Canadian families with rising prices, etc.?
The single largest expense for Canadians is taxation. Reduce it.
Regarding health care. There is a fundamental issue that is being ignored in the public/private debate. That is:
We can spend 100% of our money on healthcare, and do you know what? We will still get sick and die. At least for now; come future developments, that will change.
So … it must be rationed. Either by queue theory (Canadian system) or price theory (American system). Here are the pros and cons:
Political rationing: Pro – Everyone gets the same deal, except the politicos. Con – Treatment becomes a political decision.
Economic rationing: Pro – Medical decisions are made on economic and medical reasons between the interested parties. Con – some people cannot afford available treatments.
Nowhere in this discussion is it suggested that supply of healthcare should be a government monopoly. Since when did monopolies of any kind become benign? Since when did the government start doing anything efficiently.
Healthcare provision should be privatized. Government would offer a parallel insurance scheme. Personally, I prefer to insure myself as I take personal measures to keep healthy. Under the current system, 45% of my $50k all levels of government take from me go to healthcare. That is a stupendous insurance rate.
Free healthcare is not free!
And fire 2/3 of the CRA bureaucrats! Great idea! Imagine the efficiencies!
It took me quite a while, but I gave what I thought were sensible suggestions.
Yep as soon as the dictator/Marxist style became apparent I scrolled.
Took the survey and did my best at addressing their questions on point. First point was: reduce income taxes please. Then brought up the liberal push for ‘universal day care’ mantra of late. So I was strong on them discouraging this tax burden and union control of the babies.
Was really nice to have a chance to have a say.
“Cut the CBC subsidy to $0”
I initially approached this survey with every intention of completing it in depth. However, my utter distaste with the CBC and its antics got in the way and defunding this lamprey was the only solution that I could muster. We can talk about the huge bureaucracy, high taxes, etc. etc. but the CBC subsidy is $1.5 billion annually that is immediately identifiable and can be eliminated without hurting Canadians one iota. Even with today’s bloated budgets and wasteful spending, $1.5 billion is not chump change. Just think … $1.5 billion annually to be put toward health care, infrastructure, tax reduction, defence or a thousand other worthwhile endeavours and the only trade-off is losing a state broadcaster that contributes exactly nothing to the average Canadian other than cheerleading and running interference for the opposition and disseminating misinformation to the liv.
Because, once upon a time, incentivizing the nuclear family was broadly considered a good idea. Agreed that it serves no sane purpose today, especially since “gay marriage”.
The income-splitting suggestions are good; we need to support families more in a society that seems designed against them. However, the impact of whatever Flaherty does or doesn’t do is dwarfed by the impact of immigration, now set at an enormous 265,000 per year PLUS the so-called Temporary Foreign Workers who are arriving at a rate of 125,000 in the first six months alone of 2013. If changes aren’t made to those policies, in the long term it really doesn’t matter all that much what the Minister of Finance does.
Something like this might have worked if it was started 40 years ago. Now its too late. Half the baby boomers will be 65 or older in 2019. For anyone born after 1960 there will be no pension.
What a refreshing change from the Lib survey we saw a few days ago. Freedom to state your own opinions, rather than choosing from a preset list of “correct” choices!
http://www.gc.ca/depts/major/depind-eng.html
Not gonna write the whole rant here. Basically said do you want me to go through the whole list? Just look at it. How is it we need all this?
That was fun, eh? I sure hope someone reads it. Among the gems I delivered was the idea that governmental department budgets should be reduced to force them to use their resources more efficiently. And for the same reason, I have been ignoring all the letters I get from Senator Gerstein lately.