Seniors Benefits Discussion- split from Liberal (Minority/Majority) Government 2025 - ???
- Thread starter ytz
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France is where they are because they bought off voters with benefits that they couldn't afford. Their retirement age was 62. It is now 64; Their guaranteed pension is 1600 Cdn. each person in the household. Their workweek is 35 hours with anything over at least in government getting o/t. There are 13 national holidays as opposed to our 6 to 9 dependent upon province. The province itself can add more as can the french prefects there. France is where it is financially because of ethic unrest, student unrest, the huge cost of illegal immigrations and their pursuit of zero carbon amongst a whole bunch of other costs.
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Seniors' discounts exist for a couple of different reasons.
They exist to provide people on low (and often fixed) incomes with a bit of a price break; this applies to public and private enterprises.
They are a useful marketing tool to draw the attention, and thus the spending, of seniors who are not on low incomes.
For private enterprises, it can make sense to offer the discounts and not worry about whether the people paying have high or low incomes. For public enterprises, it would be sensible to apply means tests.
They exist to provide people on low (and often fixed) incomes with a bit of a price break; this applies to public and private enterprises.
They are a useful marketing tool to draw the attention, and thus the spending, of seniors who are not on low incomes.
For private enterprises, it can make sense to offer the discounts and not worry about whether the people paying have high or low incomes. For public enterprises, it would be sensible to apply means tests.
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Not many voters willingly give up benefits; they seem to prefer to stay bought.
People who are principled and do want to give up their benefits can always send back the money as "Gift to Canada".
Sounds familiar.....
For the Nth time. French retirees make more than their working class. This is root of the problem.
15% of GDP in France is spent on public pensions. A third of their education budget goes to paying teachers pensions for example. Etc. This leaves scant money for anything else. And well, everybody else who is not a retiree with a generous pension is starting to notice.
You'll notice from the graphic above that we aren't that far behind.
the joys of having a strong union. How many times in the last 20 years has the teacher's union in Ontario been bought off to avoid confrontation and every one of those union wins adds to the problem. I see no problem with a union worker making a lot of money provided the union pension plan is self sufficient and independent of government largesse. Senior civil servants, senators and ex-mps are a drain on the government pension plan which should otherwise be able to run itself. Those areas here in Canada where the plan doesn't support itself should be addressed. From what I have read though our biggest drain other than supporting the U.N. is immigrants who aren't able to work due education or age or have to take minimum wage jobs which we then subsidize. With the exception of refugees, immigrants should have to meet minimum skills and language standards and that includes the families they bring in with them
Credible source please for "biggest drain".
Cause it sounds more like a nice way to distract from other complaints. "Go blame those people over there."
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Don't get me started on University degrees for jobs that won't pay back for them. My daughter looked at a 4 year early childhood degree. Top wage she could get is $27.00 an hour, I make more than that as a security guard. I like to throttle some of the people writing job requirements.
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This is why I advocate for free education, especially if it has a job in a related field at the end.
We still need early childhood educators, etc. but it is unreasonable to saddle them with a ton of debt especially when the jobs pay poorly.
Sometimes value to society isn’t determined solely by your wage.
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If only such a thing existed.....
2025 Canada will stop funding hotel accommodations for asylum seekers on Sept. 30, ending a program that has cost taxpayers $1.1 billion since 2017, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced this week. The department of immigration, refugees and citizenship spent 6.1 billion in 2024 which was 1.2% of the total government expenditures. Not an overwhelming figure but it is significant. and it is 3X greater than the total GIS figure if every senior in Canada received it. Perhaps if I dropped the term "biggest" and substituted "A significant drain on the economy" would that be better. I am happy with that. Most of these claims are financial ones coming from areas of poverty. In addition the government paid 1.1 billion over the same period to other municipalities to support housing. From a website immigration2Canada.com Cost per refugee, immigrant
Breakdown of Typical Costs (Per Person – Year 1)
| Monthly Income Support | $850–$1,200/month |
| Temporary Housing Support | $3,000–$6,000 |
| Furnishings & Essentials | $1,500–$3,000 |
| Health Services (via IFHP) | $800–$1,200 |
| Settlement Services (avg.) | $2,000–$3,500 |
| Total (Est.) | $15,000–$25,000 |
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Expense
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[/th]This has been gone over before. there are probably more jobs that would be better served through an apprenticeship programme than a degree. And even those that require classroom studies can probably be through less expensive methods. A close friend earned a PHD in family counselling on line and is now an accredited and published expert. She spent maybe 6 months total in class studies over 10 years. Without paying rent, transportation etc. and using the local university library as a source for her books it cost her a fraction of that 100K. Did she need all that? Even at the reduced rate the answer is no. she was providing counselling to individuals after her first few courses. All the Phd did was allow her to put the initials on the door.
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Everything has a cost, including indebting our youth for essential programs required to do jobs necessary to keep society functioning.
One of two things happen with the current system. Either a) people stop taking those programs resulting in a shortage of key workers (PSWs, early childhood educators, cooks, etc.) or b) they take those programs and are basically debt slaves for the rest of their lives.
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Then don't call it free........maybe call it "take food money away from a working family" education levy.
