Re: tax credits cancelled

Antonia Chatson | Apr 07, 2016

I just can't see why Ken Gorham is so upset about the cancelling of tax credits (Tax credits cancelled, Mar 31/16) to fund tuition fees for students whose families earn less than $50,000 per annum. (By the way, is this the new poverty level in our fine country?) Mr. Gorham can take comfort in the fact that although Ms. Wynne has decided to do away with the tax credit for seniors and low income families, this has already been adequately compensated by the increase in the OAS and Supplement which we seniors received last January. The amount in question - $1.64!!! Yes, you read that correctly.

My first question concerning this lowly amount was how I was to spend it. That alone cost me many a sleepless night. My second thought about this amount was whether this was a set amount for all concerned? And my third speculation was that if it was not a set amount, was it based on a percentage of total income? If so, I was curious as to what the percentage was. I took out my trusty calculator and punched in my appropriate numbers. I was certainly not surprised when so many zeros appeared after the decimal point that an actual number did not appear!

As I suspected, this calculation would be beyond the scope of an average government employee. If this amount was based on a percentage - what was the percentage and how wide a net must the government have cast to locate an Einstein that would be able to do these calculations and how much would they have had to pay him or her to do them?

So you see Ken Gorham, it all works out in the end - but definitely NOT for those in need.