Neither Finance Minister Charles Sousa nor Premier Wynne really understood what they were doing in the recent budget. They were offering half measures. They insulted both students and seniors. They tried to buy votes with lies. They thought they could buy support with half measures.
The most grievous insult was to our young. These are people with their lives ahead of them. And they were demeaned by politicians trying to buy their support but tying them to the apron-strings of parental control. They were putting the parents to a means test and that was only the first mistake. In using the parents in this way, the politicians were treating the students as though they were still young children.
Higher education might not be a right for all but the only fair way to decide who should have it is the student’s academic drive and potential. Whether the parents can or cannot afford to fund higher education should not be the deciding factor. Civil servants cannot be the arbiters between parents and their children when they do not agree on the same career objectives.
And speaking of objectives, seniors are wondering what the Ontario Liberals have in mind with an annual payment of $170 to be eligible for the Ontario Drug Benefit? Look folks, the operative word there is “benefit.” Why are you taking it back?
And with dispensing fees already ranging from less than $2 to over $11, why does the Ontario government decide to raise it a dollar to a supposed $7.11 per prescription? Even if it is only a difference of an average of maybe $300 a year for seniors, where does the government think the extra money will come from? You would think the time the premier and her finance minister spent in grocery stores promoting beer might have shown them the steep rise in grocery prices lately.
And a means test for seniors is just as mean as a means test to determine if their grandchildren can go to college.
Is there some magic to a senior couple having an income of more than $32,300 per year? Are you suddenly rich and can give more of your riches to the Ontario government? At a time in people’s lives when their savings and pensions are beset from rising prices and falling markets does the government think it can take more?
A word of advice to the Ontario government: Help our young people to get the education they need and want and leave our seniors a little gold to enjoy their golden years.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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