The television news report on Royal Columbian Hospital using Tim Hortons for emergency patients had an on camera interview with a daughter who’s mother was one of the patients in Tim Hortons who stated “how awful that you’ve been a taxpayer all of your life … that your end days are with that kind of quality of care … there is no excuse for that, I think they should be ashamed.”
I have heard, I suspect we have all heard – perhaps have stated ourselves – variations on the ‘I’m a taxpayer! What am I paying taxes for? I have paid taxes all my life……….
I had just spoken to a class at UFV on affordable housing, homelessness, addiction, mental illness, poverty and related social issues stating that these were not problems but consequences of both the way politics is practiced and the way though is practiced. More accurately about what we ‘know’ or what is ‘known’ or ‘common knowledge’ and how if we applied thought to these matters we would find or realize reality is markedly different from what is ‘known’.
When I heard the ‘been a taxpayer all my life’ statement I found myself examining the implications, the entitlement, contained in that statement. While the statement has the appearance or semblance of truth, when one carefully examines, carefully considers the statement it becomes clear that all it has is the appearance of truth.
The underlying fiscal reality for those who have paid taxes all their life is that what they are entitled to is CPP. The chart of Canada’s national debt below shows clearly that only those who retired prior to 1944 can make claims upon the federal government beyond CPP.
Year Federal Debt
Prior to WW II $0
1944 $ 8,000,000,000
1961-62 $ 14,825,000,000
1970-71 $ 20,293,000,000
1980-81 $ 91,948,000,000
1990-91 $377,656,000,000
1996-97 $562,881,000,000
2001-02 $511,946,000,000
2007-08 $457,637,000,000
2008-09 $463,710,000,000
2009-10 $519,100, 000,000
2010-11 $522,337, 000,000 (projected)
2011-12 $535,237, 000,000 (projected)
2012-13 $542,537, 000,000 (projected)
If you purchase something for $1,500 and you pay out $1500 it is yours as you have paid out the full price of your purchase and are entitled to benefit from your purchase.
If you buy the something for $1500 and only pay $1200 you still owe $300 that must be paid and until you pay the final $300 you are not entitled to your purchase.
Beginning in 1944 Canadian taxpayers have been paying only a portion of the price of their ‘purchases’ of federal government services, borrowing to cover the remaining cost of the federal services ‘purchased’, putting the balance on a federal credit card- a balance that remains to be paid, a balance that continues to grow.
So, while taxpayers have paid taxes all their lives they have failed to pay sufficient taxes to cover the cost of the federal government . Taxpayers have avoided paying the full tab by running deficits, adding the outstanding unpaid yearly balances to the federal debt.
Every Canadian man, woman or child has/owes their portion of the federal debt, the debt of the province they reside in and the debt of the municipality they live in.
So while Canadians may be entitled to the CPP they paid into, the only ones entitled to anything else from the federal, provincial or municipal governments are those who loaned money to these governmental bodies and are entitled to repayment of principal plus interest.
Receiving medical care in Tim Hortons is a consequence of the decisions taxpayers have made (spending on the Winter Olympic venues rather than hospitals), together with years of choosing not to pay the full cost of all the services they were receiving from government.
If Canadians don’t want to be receiving medical care in Tim Hortons or hospital hallways they need to make better choices, to be willing to make hard decisions, face fiscal realities, understand we cannot have everything we want ‘right now’ and be willing to pay the full cost of the services etc we want (receive) from federal, provincial and municipal governments.
If Canadians don’t change our behaviours, choices and decision making, the days when you got medical services in the Tim Hortons at Royal Columbian are going to be the ‘good old days’ of public health care.